Hybrids

Dark brick walls whistled past, my dirty feet slapped on cold cobblestones, stringy hair whipped my face. Calls of anger followed me, making me run ever faster. Breath was ripped from my lungs as I dashed on and on. Cold alleys surrounded me, a maze of confusion that only I could truly navigate. My face hurt from the hard roll firmly clasped in my jaw. I could hear the store owner behind me, slowly loosing speed. “THEIF! COME BACK HERE WITH MY MERCHANDISE!” I rolled my eyes at his feeble calls and sped on. Finally I slumped against a wall and slid on to the ground, contently chewing my stolen breakfast. {Silly humans,} I thought, {why must they be so concerned with this week old piece of bread; they were going to throw it out anyways! That must have been a brave storeowner; most people just run away when they see me and let me take what I want.} 1

My sharp teeth slowly gnawed at a hunk of bread as I pondered what I was going to do next. “AAAHH!” A scream came from the sky and my head whipped around. I saw a strange figure, garbed in battle armor, fall from the sky. She had huge, white wings sprouting from her shoulder blades. An arrow protruded from her side and she fell rapidly towards my alley. I quickly scurried out of the way as she hit the ground. She lay motionless on the ground and I slowly crept up to her. Her face was streaked with mud and a curious scar marked her forehead. A quiver of arrows hung at her waist and her bow was still grasped in her hand. Her brown hair was streaked with mud and her delicate wings her spread out behind her. 2

Hesitantly I laid my hand on her chest and shook her. Immediately, she jerked awake, her eyes settled on me and she stared at me. She had a good reason to too, my appearance isn’t normal in the slightest. Long, curved claws protrude from the tips of my fingers. My hair is black with stripes of shocking orange. A tiger’s tail and sharp, dangerous teeth also make me out of the ordinary. 3

I tested my voice; I could not remember the last time I had spoken to anyone other than myself. “Wh-who are you?” I unsheathed my claws and tried to look threatening. 4

Groaning the girl slowly sat up and replied in a confidant voice, “I am Aya Feng. I see that you are a tighon and that we have much in common. Who exactly are you?” Then she reached for the arrow and pulled it out of her side. I was quite taken aback by this answer and answered uneasily, “I’m…well…I don’t see any reason why I should tell you who I am! All you need to know is that you are not welcome here and I see no reason to trust you!” All this time I was thinking, what on Earth is a tighon? How do we have anything in common? Well, other than being a animal/human that is. Aya smiled and just shrugged as she examined her wound. 5

A few minutes later she looked at me with shocking blue eyes and said in a commanding tone, “I know who you are and why you are like this.” 6

“Wh-what? How can you know who I am? I’ve never seen you before in my life! What do you mean you know why I am like this? I don’t even remember my past!” I retorted.7

“Calm down! You mean you don’t remember anything? Of course you wouldn’t…you were so young. Listen, Zena, you are a tighon, a hybrid of a tiger and a human. There are scientists who take children away from their parent’s and conduct experiments on them. No one knows why. They are why you are half tiger and why I am half bird. They kept us in a labor camp where they observed us. I escaped several years ago and I took you with me. You were just a child and you were the only person I could carry. You were taken away from me just a week after my escape by an adoption center…I haven’t seen you since.” I stared at Aya, she knew my name and she knew about the adoption center that I had escaped from several weeks ago. Maybe she was telling the truth. I must admit, she did look vaguely familiar. 8

“What if I don’t believe you?” I said slowly. 9

“Then there would be nothing I could do. But first, hear me out. Those scientists are still experimenting on children. I would like nothing more than to stop them. That is my quest; to find and stop these horrible scientists. I have been looking for a companion for many months now because I am reluctant to face them alone. Now that I have found a fellow hybrid, would you like to accompany me on my quest?” 10

I stood there, bread long forgotten, for several, long minutes. I took a deep breath as I made up my mind. She could have been lying and was really here to take me back to the adoption center. I closed my eyes and said, “No, I have no reason to trust you and you could be tricking me! Your wings could be fake.” I could tell that she was not going to give up that easily. 11

“Think of it this way. You are already half starved to death from the looks of you and do you really believe that someone from the adoption center would make up a story like the one I just told you? Do you really think they even care enough to come looking for you? Can your life really get worse? Think about it,” she smoothly replied. I saw the truth in her words and slowly convinced myself that I should trust her, for now. Aya patiently waited as I played with my tail, deep in my thoughts. Slowly I stood up and said, “Fine, I’ll help you but do not expect me to start trusting you.” 12

Aya smiled and scooped me into her arms, “Alright Zena, off we go!” she said as she spread her wings and took to the sky. I resisted the temptation to scream as we soared through the sky. As we flew Aya spoke to me, “By the way, I thought I should mention that I have no idea where the scientists are. We are currently flying to a cave I saw the other day where we can discuss plans.” 13

I quickly responded with anger inflicting my voice, “You mean you don’t know how to do this! I thought you already had a plan! Otherwise I would have never agreed to help you!” 14

She looked at me guiltily, “I know, that’s why I didn’t tell you.” I clenched my fists but didn’t say anything. There was no where I could go anyways. Slowly, I fell asleep to the rhythmic beating of Aya’s wings. 15

When I woke up I was lying on a cold, rock floor in a damp cave. I curled up into a ball to try to protect my self from the bitter cold. I opened my eyes slowly and looked around. The cave was quite large and had many puddles on the floor. I scanned the room for Aya and spotted her attempting to start a fire. I reluctantly propped myself up and said, “So what are we going to do?” Aya jumped and dropped the flint she was holding. “Oh, you’re awake. Let’s have some dinner before we discuss any plans,” she replied. I crawled over to the fire and saw some hard tack piled by the side. I groaned but grabbed some and shoved it into my mouth. I didn’t realize before how hungry I was. 16

Eventually Aya got a fire going and I was just about to drift off to sleep again when Aya screamed. I was jolted awake and saw Aya’s gaze was fixed on the other wall. I quickly turned around to see a creature made from shadows emerging from the stone wall. He looked like a shadow, except he could move on his own accord. I was staring at him in shock when I heard a soothing voice inside my head. Strangely, I was not scared, just curious. It seemed to be coming from the shadow creature. It said, “Do not be alarmed. I am your shadow guardian, every person has one, but we only appear when our person is in dire need of assistance. I am here to give you a map to the laboratory. I am sorry that I can not be any more useful than that. Good bye, Zena.” A map appeared on the ground before me as my shadow guardian turned and slipped back in to the wall. 17

I quickly explained to Aya what had happened and showed her the map. She simply nodded as if this happened all the time and said, “We should get going again then. The trip should take us about a week.” She picked me up and flew up into the sky again. 18

~19

The landscape flashed by as the days passed. Lush earth gave way to rough, rocky dirt. Trees became scarce and the air was hot and sticky. The humidity was almost enough for me to abandon the quest. We were moving slower, the heat was taking a serious toll on Aya. We became hard pressed to find water. Not nearly as many animals roamed the land, so food also became infrequent. 20

On the 6th day, weak with hunger, we were stopped by a looming structure that rose from the ground. Metal wires, charged with electricity, twisted around each other, forming a great fence. Without a second thought, Aya immediately stretched her wings and tiredly began to fly upwards. The ground got farther and farther away, but the fence stayed by our side the whole time. It looked like it stretched into the sky forever. The air became thinner and thinner. We both began gasping for a breath, racking our bodies for extra oxygen. Aya looked at me and I grimly nodded. She fell into a deep dive towards the ground, and the thick air. 21

She set me down on the ground and we both spent several minutes lying on the sun baked earth re-inflating our lungs. Never had the air tasted so sweet. Aya slowly began, “This fence goes up much too far for me to fly over…”22

“And we can’t walk around; it stretches for as long as I can see. Anyways, we wouldn’t be able to survive that long, we don’t have enough water. We have to go through!” I finished for her. We both began testing the fence, looking for broken links or rusted areas. There was nothing, it seemed brand new! Frustration welled up inside my chest. I did not come all this way just to be stopped by a stupid fence! I thought to myself. I kicked the dirt, sending a dust cloud up around me. Realization flooded me as the dust settled. I extended my claws and dug a small hole in the ground. A grin spread across my face as I dug deeper and faster. Mounds of dirt developed around me as I worked.23

Aya, oblivious, received a smack of dirt in the back of her head. She jumped, turned and stared. “Zena! What are you doing?” she inquired, looking very confused.24

I just grunted, “Digging.” 25

She looked puzzled for a few minutes and then her expression completely changed to awe. Soon she was down on her knees helping me. “Zena…you’re brilliant!” I just smiled. 26

Several hours later we had a tunnel that extended from one side of the fence from the other. At this point it was the dead of the night and I was working alone. I was feeling claustrophobic in the tiny tunnel. I was extremely relieved when I broke through to the other side. I quickly crawled back to where Aya slept. I woke her and we went back through the tunnel. Without a word Aya picked me up and we shot upwards once more.27

On the last day of our journey we were flying along when I spotted an ominous looking cylinder of smoke rising steadily into the sky. We both started to cough heavily as we approached it. Aya lost her concentration on flying and we went plummeting towards the ground. Just in time Aya snapped her wings up and soared upwards, but not before a person on the ground saw us. He began making a huge commotion, yelling about escaped mutants. Aya and I stared at each other, we knew then that this was the dreaded factory and that person on the ground was a security guard. Speaking very quickly Aya muttered to me, “I’m going to put you on the ground; I need you to do what ever you can to stop that guard from letting anyone know about us!” I began to protest but she glared at me and I fell silent. 28

A few feet from the ground I drew in a deep breath and jumped. I glanced around, seeing a block of concrete a little ways off which I figured was the lab. The huge guard came at me, a cigar dangling out of the corner of his mouth. I unsheathed my claws and scratched him across his ugly face. Before he could scream I put my tail over his mouth. He tried to grab me, but I bit him on the neck. He became limp and still. In shock I let him drop as a realized I had killed him. I had killed him! I’m not a killer; at least I thought I wasn’t! It was all I could do to keep my self from fainting. I don’t know how long I stood there but it felt like an eternity. I desperately wanted to give up this quest right there, go back the New York and forget that this whole thing had ever happened. I didn’t know I would be killing. I may hate normal human’s guts, but I would never kill one. I thought about my warm bed back at the adoption center and the daily baths. Just that thought made me want to go back there. I was beginning to hate all of this freedom I got for myself. I had killed someone in the course of it so it could not have been that great. I closed my eyes, turned around and began to walk back towards the direction that we had came, away from the lab, away from Aya and away from the dead man. The adoption center and New York seemed to beckon to me, even from miles away, as I resolutely walked on, never pausing to think about how I would get there. 29

Before I got far Aya came swooping down out of the sky and picked me up. “Where were you going? I see you have taken care of that guard,” she questioned.30

“I KILLED that guard! I am NOT a killer! I don’t want any part of this quest anymore, not if I have to kill to succeed!” I yelled at her. 31

Sighing, Aya looked at me as she hovered in place. Slowly she said, “Look, thousands of kids die because of the experiments done on them, I agree that I do not like killing but sometimes it is necessary to save all of those lives. I’m sorry you had to do that.” She truly looked sad and there was truth to her words so I just crossed my arms and said nothing. 32

“I think I located the main power source of the building. It’s inside the main building in the center chamber. That is where all the smoke is coming from.” I glanced at the gray, forbidding building and shuddered. Aya saw my reaction and smiled tentatively. She said quietly, as if she was afraid, “Don’t worry; we don’t have to go in. When they gave me my wings they also gave me a little bit of magic. I think I can shut down the power source and stop it from ever working again or being replaced. I will be extremely weak afterwards so I will need you to force me to stay awake or I could go into a coma and the spell will break. I have never conducted a spell this large so I don’t know how long it will take me to recover. You are essential to this quest; without you I can not do this! You are the true hero in this quest, you have shown bravery beyond what I thought possible and I could never have succeeded, or even got here, without you. So no matter what, thank you, Zena.”33

“M-magic?” was all I could stutter.34

“Will you do as I say?” Numbly, I nodded. Aya aimed herself towards a clump of bushes and touched down. We crouched on the barren ground as Aya prepared herself for the ordeal ahead. My mind was frozen, I could barely think. So much had happened in the last few days and I was, I hate to admit it, scared. Aya closed her eyes and said in a harsh voice “DAHGNAY FOPYAD BEWQUR!” I could feel power humming around me. The very air was vibrating. She then fell silent, opened her eyes and stared at the laboratory, obviously exerting all of her will into shutting it down. I carefully watched her shocking blue eyes as they slowly became clouded with pain. Aya slowly drifted asleep. With no hesitation I grabbed her arm and shook it violently, being careful to retract my claws first. She jerked awake without loosing her concentration. This happened several more times in the course of three hours. I was beginning to wonder if Aya was really strong enough for this. Her face became white and her eyes bloodshot. However, eventually she slowly came out of her trance just as a horrible noise erupted from the lab. My tail quickly flicked up to cover my ears. As she opened her eyes she looked at me with a dazed look and fainted. 35

All of a sudden I heard the sound of shouts coming from the laboratory as several people began to run around looking for the source of the destruction of the power source. I glanced up, over the bushes, to see a burly looking man wearing the same clothing as the guard I had killed coming straight towards us! Time seemed to be caught in suspension as I considered my situation. I muttered to Aya, “I’m sorry,” and unsheathed my claws. Quickly I scratched her arm lightly, but none the less leaving deep gorges in her arm. Aya jerked awake with a yell of fury. I urgently whispered to her, “I’m sorry, but you had fainted. I know that you are weak, but do you think that you could fly us away from here? There is a guard coming straight towards us and with the yell that you just gave everyone within a mile knows that we are here, so quickly!” Wordlessly Aya took a deep breath and scooped me us as she strained to climb upwards. I scanned the ground below and saw hundreds of guards running around attempting to catch thousands of mutants. There must have been an electric fence that contained them. It must have lost power with the rest of the laboratory. 36

While we were flying Aya seemed to grow stronger. She took a deep breath and said to me, “Flying always makes me feel stronger. There’s something about it that is so freeing.” I smiled and she flew on. The earth slowly changed from barren earth to lush, green forest. We moved slowly, but eventually saw the New York skyline on the horizon. One night we stopped at the cave that Aya brought me to the first day of our adventure. We settled down and tried to go to sleep. 37

The cave was dark and eerie, but I was much too tired to think about that at the time. Aya propped herself up on her elbow and whispered to me, “Zena…what are you going to do once we get back to New York?” 38

I sighed, this is what I had been dreading all along. I didn’t want to go back to living in the alleys, but what else could I do? I slowly replied, “I guess I’ll go back to the streets…go back to my old life.” 39

“Well…I have a suggestion. I was thinking about all the hybrids that we set free. I don’t want them to have no home, so maybe we should set up some sort of shelter for them. We could put up fliers and spread the word about it. I-I wouldn’t want to do it without you. Do you want to?” 40

I pondered her question for a few minutes. Eventually I answered her, “That seems better than my current plan. I guess I will help you. I certainly don’t want any more people to end up like I did.” Aya didn’t say anything more. I rolled over, attempted to become comfortable on the hard rock floor and fell asleep.41

The next morning light filtered into the cave. I slowly opened my eyes, letting them adjust to the light, and stretched. I saw Aya sitting up beside me. A sudden and inexplicable joy filled me at the thought of going back to New York City today. I never really viewed it as home before, but it suddenly seemed like the only place I ever really want to be. We ate a small breakfast so that we could set off early. My heart filled with happiness as we got closer and closer to the looming buildings. 42

We touched down at the outskirts of the city. Aya smiled at me as I ran forward. I turned to her and said, “There’s an abandoned house down this street, we could set up the shelter in it!” I sprinted in the correct direction and Aya laughed softly as she followed. When I had looked at that city before my quest I had seen cold cobblestones and harsh people. Now I saw beautiful architecture and a welcoming future. I felt on top of the world. I felt as if I had balanced my new knowledge about hybrids and my old life perfectly. Nothing seemed uncertain and scary any more and I had a friend, a real friend! My world was complete and that was all that mattered. Not my tail or my teeth, they were not important anymore. They were just a part of me that I had to accept. The only real, important part about me was my thoughts and my feelings. Nothing and no one can take that away from me.43