• I stood there in the cold snow with beautiful flakes falling all around me. I was standing in one of my favorite places. It was a place with tons of trees and animals everywhere. People always said that there are at least two animals with me wherever I go. What can I say? Animals love me. I am always finding wounded ones and taking them back to my dorm. This place was the perfect place to practice shooting small objects like pinecones or to practice my camouflage by seeing how close I could get to an animal without being spotted; of course I would never shoot an animal. It was also a great place to come and think; to get away from all the people at school. That was one of the reasons why I came out here today. It was just too crowed back at the dorms. I loved the long ski here. It was eight miles that I could use to think about anything; I can just let my mind wander anywhere and the animals are always there to keep me company if I get lonely. For some reason animals are always following me around.
    I was practicing my aim when I saw him. I had heard the crunch of snow behind me and as I spun around looking for the glow on his cheek that would tell me he was one of us, I saw the there wasn’t one; he was human. My mind flashed back to the memory of my first survival class. The first lesson the teacher had taught and the most important rule of our kind; kill them before they kill you. I saw the man’s eyes widen as he took in my bright green eyes and the tell-tale glow on my cheek that told him I wasn’t human; I was a Shifter. I was stronger and faster than any human and once I finished my schooling I would be able to change into any animal I wanted to. As of right now I could still only changed into a mouse but he didn’t know that. The man’s face was a mask of shock as he reached for the gun strapped to his hip. With my first survival lesson in mind, I brought my gun up, to my aim, and fired. I quickly reloaded my gun in case he had a hiking buddy that would be coming up the trail any second. I kneeled down in the snow strained to hear anything but it appeared that this hiker was alone. I got up and walked over to the body that was already staining the pure white of the freshly fallen snow crimson and leaving the smell of blood in the crisp winter air.
    People say that you can’t smell blood, but I can. It smells like rust and salt and leaves a foul taste on my tongue. I turned my gaze from the body to the gun in my hand. I had shot a gun many times, but I never killed anything except for food on our survival tests. I knew that I should be proud because it was my first kill and I had done it alone, but somehow I couldn’t bring myself to feel any pride in what I had done. I know kids who will spend a hole Saturday looking for lone hikers to add to their tally of kills; I’m not one of those kids. I had only come out here to practice my shooting and get some air away from the crowded dorms. I know that any human would shoot one of us on sight, just like the one at my feet would have, so why is it that I just couldn’t feel good about what I had done? I guess that to me it just seemed slightly barbaric, to kill without a thought. In my eyes that made us no better than them, but what do I know? I’m just a teenager that can still only change into a pathetic little mouse. The only thing special about me is that my mouse is black instead of white.
    I turned my thoughts back to the current issue at hand; the body. I struggled to remember my training for a situation like this. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to always turn down the invites from people to go on hunts with the other kids in my building. If I had gone on any of them I might have better idea of what to do right now besides just trying to remember my basic training. Okay, come on Anya, think. First thing first, I already knew that he didn’t have someone else directly behind him but I had to know if there was someone waiting for him at a camp site. I pushed my long black hair out of my face and knelt down next to the body and began to go through his pockets looking for a walky-talky. Nothing. I moved on to his backpack and checked to see if there was any extra gear he might be carrying for someone else or a lack of gear somebody else might have. Everything looked normal. I guess that meant I was in luck. No extra person who might be looking for this guy that I would need to go kill. Now for the next problem, dragging the body all the way back to the Academy. I groaned at the thought. Skiing the eight miles with just my small backpack of food, water, my gun and ammo wasn’t all that bad, in fact it was kind of fun. But dragging the body of a full grown man complete with his hiking gear eight miles back to the Academy was another story. Once I got him there the staff would take care of the rest, like making sure his death looked like an accident, but it was up to me to get him there. I put my gun back in my pocket and walked over to my pack and made sure I had everything. Then I took out the two bungee cords that I used to tie together the snow shoes I wore when I was just walking around and didn’t want to have to deal with my skis. I hated walking more than half a mile in snow shoes and now it looked like I was going to have to walk eight. This day just kept on getting better and better. I trudged over to the tree where I had laid my skis and poles and brought them over to the body. With some effort and a fair amount a grunting I managed to get the body rolled over onto my two skis. It’s a good thing that I’m tall otherwise my skis might not have been long enough to hold him. I strapped him down along with my poles, put on my pack, picked up the long end of one of the cords and began the long trek back to school. What a way to start my weekend.