The Phases: After Dark

Everything was back to how it should be. Or, at least, as how it should be when a teenage girl is given the gift to turn into a marsh harrier at will and has to try and explain this to her parents. And a woman who can turn into an eagle comes back nearly a month after she went missing, leaving a hastily scribbled note to her 'aunt and uncle'. Deada had been really worried that the other Phases would reject them, but she'd been wrong: when the group consisting of Deada, Emarai and Tom were found by a Phase search party they were welcomed back with open arms. Emarai and Tom's parents were brought to the RR HQ a little more roughly than they would've liked but the important thing was that they were safe and with their children. They were still a little confused as to what was going on and totally unable to accept that Maria a.k.a Emarai could turn into a marsh harrier but other than that they were perfectly fine. Emarai was sitting on her bed in her little room, her bad arm in a sling and now long hair tied back in a pony tail when she heard a knock on her door. She looked up from her reminiscing as the door to her room opened and Tom came in. They smiled at each other and Emarai gestured with her good arm for him to come and sit next to him.
'Hey,' Tom said, sitting down on Emarai's bed. 'How are you? How's your arm?' Emarai smiled at Tom. Despite all that had happened, Tom was still such a big brother to her.
'Mending well, thanks to the healers.' Mending her arm had been quite easy, and the humans hadn't done anything wrong, but she now only had red-ish marks on her arm where the bullets had punctured her skin, and humans couldn't get something to heal that  fast. 'But how about you?' She asked Tom 'how are mum and dad?'
'I'm fine. Really, you people know how to make guests feel at home! Mum and dad still don't believe. I think the only way is to have you show them yourself. Deada's great, before you ask. And the Elder's have agreed to let her do the ceremony thing, even though she isn't a born Phase. They say shes 'shown courage and intelligence worthy of any Elder.' Or something like that.'
'And, Tom,' Emarai lowered her eyes as she said it. 'There's still one more thing. Have you decided to--'
'No,' he cut across her ' Not now. Not yet. Maybe in the future, when I'm older, but at the moment I just feel that there's so mush more I can get out of being human. Perhaps, if I want to, I will. But not today.' Tom looked Emarai straight in the eyes as he said it, and by his look Emarai knew he wasn't going to budge. Part of her, however, was glad that Tom wouldn't become a Phase. So much had changed, so she was glad that he would stay human, at least. She and Tom leaned together and half hugged each other. Emarai stared at the wall, thinking about all that had happened... and all that would be. At that moment she felt as if she was staring into the future. Her arm would heal, and she'd go back to her duty's, but when she came back, her mum and dad would greet her, and she and Tom would hang out with the other teenage Phases. Deada would become a new Elder, and have new power and authority and would be trusted by all. Deada wouldn't be the only made Elder, either. Hey, maybe in 186 years Emarai would be made one too. And Devic, why Devic, would graduate for the second time and hopefully behave more like the Elder he was.

The End.

The Phases: After Dark

Deada's heart was beating hard as she stepped into the room, but it wasn't just that there quest might be over that made her nervous: she dreaded what she'd see inside. Visions of raptors in tiny cages, seriously maimed, terrified out of their wits kept tumbling through her mind. 'Deada, you're doing it again.' Tom muttered, elbowing her in the ribs, and Deada blinked. When she 'did that' she apparently looked as if she was about to kill someone, which wasn't helpful at the moment.
'So, Delia.' Deada wanted to hit Tom for the ridiculous name he'd given to her, but looked up trying to look friendly. By the expression on the guides face, she'd failed epically.
'Yes?' Tom broke the awkward silence.
'Uh, yes,' the guide hastily continued 'What did you say the bird looked like?'
God, this guy's dumb. We've been telling him through the whole journey. 'Green eyes, marsh harrier, female, juvenile.' she said with as much patience as she could muster.
'Ah yes, this one.' The guide said with infuriating slowness, and opened up a cage door. It wasn't nearly as bad as Deada had expected. The cages were all about 2 meters tall and 1 meter wide, with a wooden perch for the birds to sit on. But now Deada had a new concern: did Emarai remember she was a Phase? Deada had heard terrible story's about Phases who'd been in their animal forms too long and didn't know that they could change back. She needn't have worried though. As soon as their guide lifted Emarai out she gave a cry of recognition and struggled to fly over to them. Deada caught her and looked at her wing. Four half-healed puncture wounds, each one going straight through her wing. Emarai nipped Deada on the ear in a disgruntled way and turned her attention to Tom. She hopped across to him and gave a squawk that sounded very much like 'Tom!!' and attempted to hug him with her wings. The guide looked on in a rather bemused way. 'Well, she certainly knows you,' he said slowly 'but I'm afraid I can't just let you take her like that. We need paper work and your licenses and...' He trailed off at the murderous looks all three were giving him. 'Well I can't just let you take her!' he protested 'I'd loose my job!'
'No one has a license for another person.' Deada said, and then looked at Emarai. Emarai looked at Deada carefully for a few seconds, and then Tom's arm began to sag as the bird he was holding got bigger and bigger and soon he had to drop her as the feathers retracted, the claws melted away and a young girl stood upon the floor. The guides face was priceless.
'I... you... she...' he stuttered as he backed away. 'W-what are you people?!'
'Long story. Little time.' Said Emarai. 'Oh, and you might consider feeding your patience more than rat and field mouse.' she said, wrinkling her nose.
'Come on, Emarai, we've missed you!!' Tom said making to take her arm, but Emarai grimaced and looked at Tom apologetically: it was the one that's been shot.
'You didn't see this.' Deada said solemnly to the guide, and pushed 2 £50 notes into his breast pocket. The guide swallowed and nodded, still staring at Emarai.
'Well, let's go.' Emarai smiled, her old cheerfulness back again. 'I want something decent to eat.' Deada grinned a huge grin. At that moment she didn't care that she was in a building swarming with humans, didn't care that the other Phases were going to kill her if she ever got back. Thei'r mission had been accomplished, and she was the happiest person under the Sun.
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Ta da!! Hm, I'm not sure you should've Phased in front of that man, Emarai, it could lead to trouble. You'll find out in a future Phase story...

The Phases: After Dark

"Uh, you sure this is the right place?" Deada did in fact trust Tom completely that this was the right place, but for some reason she didn't want to go in. Instead she felt a lot like flying for about 10 miles in the opposite direction. Just instinct. She thought to herself. Quite a few of your own kin must've died or shed blood in this place. And, what's more, it's buzzing with humans. Deada looked around. Humans in the corridors, humans behind the desks, humans bringing in more of her injured family, and humans bringing out the ones who were healed but would never be the same again...
"Deada? Deada!" Tom was looking at her in alarm.
"I-I'm fine. It doesn't matter. Lets go in." She blinked, and tried desperately to pull herself together. "It's just... so many humans." To her surprise he didn't look confused or even more alarmed, just sad and understanding. "Well, lets go in." Deada lead the way into the wildlife hospital, ignoring the uneasy feeling in her stomach. She led the way up to the desk, then paused, with no idea what to say. Luckily Tom saved her. 'Er, hey.' He said to the pretty but obviously bored receptionist behind the desk. 'We're here to enquirer about a lost bird. She, uh, escaped from a private zoo. We think she might've flow across the marshes and' Tom swallowed 'Been shot by an illegal bird hunter.'
The receptionist sat up, looking more interested. 'What species?'
'Marsh harrier. Juvenile.'
'With green eyes?'
'Yeah! Is she here?' Tom leaned forward and Deada was filled with a sudden hope.
'Yes, but...' the receptionist looked at Tom gently and Deada was filled with dread 'Her right wing was very badly hurt. Though I can tell you feel strongly for her, it may be best just to let her--'
Deada slammed her fists down on the desk top 'Don't you say that!! Don't you dare!' Now rage was bubbling inside her. And her hands hurt. Tom put a restraining arm on her shoulder. 'Please,' he said to the startled receptionist 'Just let us see her. At least once.' Angry and scared as she was, Deada trusted Tom, and allowed herself to be pushed back off the desk, as quite a number of people were staring at them.
'I-I'll call the head bird keeper to show you to her.' The receptionist stammered, picking up a phone. Deada pressed her fingers to her temples and sighed. She had a feeling they'd be waiting a while.

An hour and a half an hour later, they were finally moving along. Even Tom, who was quite patient by nature, was utterly frustrated. Here they were, waiting for some idiot to turn up and take them to a load of cages where his sister was currently being held captive. His sister. In a cage. Not that there was any way that the humans knew she was his sister. The only way they knew she could be special in anyway was by her green eyes, and the explanation of that was that she'd been 'selectively bred'. Now they were walking infuriatingly slowly with their guide babbling on about nothing in particular down a long corridor with a load of doors on either side, all marked 'Private' or 'Authorized personal only'. Eventually they came to the end of the corridor and were led through a door marked 'Indoor Raptor enclosures and Surgery'. This was it.

3 Possible Future Storys.

Yeah, hi. I'd just like to say that as the current Phase story is gonna end soonish, so I'd like to introduce you to 3 possible future story's:

'Till Death do us Part'-- This is about a city (I haven't decided where yet) where someone has it in for the teenagers who live there. As in, the teen get murdered. But something happens that the murderer doesn't expect... some of them come back as ghosts! They form a sort of gang to try and catch who killed them (this is their purpose as ghosts) and that's why it's called 'Till Death do us Part' 'cause as they're dead, they can't be parted, you get my drift?! Yeah, it's mainly about them catching the guy who murdered them, so no need to worry about the actual death part.

In 'Creation', scientists of the future have finally discovered a successful way to create artificial life in the form of an android girl they've named Kelly. Only 2 problems, 1: what they've done is illegal, and 2: they've nowhere to test her as they are currently orbiting the Earth. So, they decide to send her in a capsule down to Earth to 'test drive' her. Because she doesn't have any feelings and they hate the government, they decide just to let her loose on the Earth. Thy think she'll just go around destroying things, but as she lands in the sea, she drifts around for quite a while before finding land, and in that time she starts to really think and feel clearly, so by the time she gets a shore she doesn't want to wreck anything. This story's about her adventures with human friends and her attempts at becoming a normal girl.

Sweet, sweet blood is about, as you may have guessed, vampires. But these are a sort I've made up simply for the purpose of writing story's about them, and they have almost no relation what so ever to other versions of vampires except they are sort of venomous and they drink blood, but if they didn't then they wouldn't be vampires. They also don't really have fangs, but sort of curved retractable needle things that they can push down and out of their mouths from the roof of their mouth. When they're feeding the needle things make 2 neat punctures before shooting up again and the vampire starts drinking. Yeah, it's a bit gory, but I won't dwell on it and the venom stuff heals the wounds after feeding has ended anyway and besides the vampires don't have to kill because they don't need to take much blood. This story follows a vampire called Rose who sneaks around London every night hunting muggers, rapists etc. One night she saves the life of a girl called Julia but Julia now knows Rose is a vampire. Their lives begin to intertwine as the story continues and things interesting especially when Julia's brother Peter falls in love with Rose...
Please note that this is only a possibility and Miranda please tell me what you have against vampires.

Sooo... that's it for now and I don't wanna give too much away or I'll have nothing else to lecture people about... yeah...

Phoebe.

The Phases: After Dark

Deada knew she was in trouble. For one thing, she'd run away from the Phases, who were her only family now. And second, she was running away, with a human. The Elders were very strict about this. Even if they did find Emarai, there was almost no way of going back to HQ without something else happening to them. 'Deada?' Deada looked up to see that Tom had stopped. 'We're here. But, erm...' he pointed to a high chain link fence towering above them 'How do we...?'
'Wait here.' Deada Phased. Tom gaped at her as she glided silently over.
'Sorry.' He muttered as she Phased back and they walked along to a gate. 'But, I mean, it's one thing to know you can do it, but it's another to see it happen.' Deada unlocked the gate and let him through. 'S'ok.' She didn't really mind. It was the natural reaction to her species. They walked along the marshes in silence, both immersed in their thoughts, until Tom suddenly stopped. 'Deada!'
'Huh?'
'Do you know how Emarai was... delayed?'
'No, but we can assume she never made it across here. Other... 'shifters have got lost along this way.'
'And she traveled by day?'
'Tom, what are you getting at?'
'I mean, if she went as a Marsh Harrier, then humans would've seen her as an average, female, juvenile marsh harrier.'
'So?'
'So, there are illegal bird hunters in this area!!'
'You think she was shot?!'
'Well what else?'
'So you think she's dead?!'
'No! I think she would've been able to get somewhere, vets are always complaining about the birds suffering because they're not killed by the bullet.'
'So she's at an animal rescue center?'
'Yes!'
'Well then lets go!!' Deada yanked Tom after her. Finally, a lead, even if it was a little far fetched.
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Yeah. Sorry ppl, but I am trying to keep up the blogging ;-) and anyways, I've thought of another story idea and I'm a bit preoccupied with it. It's about vampires this time!