Ever since his most recent transformation, Megapi had been trying to be...better. A better Soquili. Less...like he once was. It had been a challenge, but it was a necessary one. He had to change, both for his own benefit and for the benefit of all. It suited no one to be a savage. It suited no one to be so consumed by grief and self-loathing that it turned into a hatred for the entire world. Megapi had to move on. For everyone's sake.Part of that was learning how to be friendly. That one was a tricky one, not only because he was a shifter, but because of his older heritage: he was a Kalona, one of the old blood, and he’d been raised as such. Learning how to be friendly to the rest of the world was challenging older, more ingrained instincts, lessons taught in childhood by haughty parents.
So when Megapi saw the little white bunny sitting there, all alone, of course he had to greet it! It was just a bunny, and he had to remind himself that little bunnies were friends, not food, no matter how much his instincts told him that it was a tasty little morsel with soft fur…
He approached it in his wolf form, a much less intimidating form than his own form now was. Ordinary Soquili were less intimidating than a wolf, but he was no ordinary Soquili, not since his transformation, and most beings would trust a wolf far more than they would a wolf-shifter. So he approached in his shifted form. To be friendly. To say hello to a fellow living thing in this universe. To, perhaps, make a friend.
Seconds later, he was running for his life.
In retrospect, he should have expected this. He wasn’t all he seemed to be in this form. So why should he have expected a rabbit to be all that it seemed to be, either?
His legs were a blur, his tail out behind him like a banner as he ran as fast as he could, but a Soquili’s legs were longer, he couldn’t outrun a fellow Soquili! …Wait.
Of course!
He changed shape. It was risky, it took a little time, but he was so used to it that he could now do it on the run. He changed into his Soquili form, and with powerful beats of his wings he was in the air and gaining altitude fast to avoid the other Shifter’s teeth. She might be a powerful leaper, but he was a powerful flier, and soon he was far out of reach, breathing hard, and making for somewhere safe to catch his breath.
At first, he was angry at being tricked. But as the hours passed and he calmed down, Megapi found himself chuckling at himself. “Serves me right for judging someone on their appearance,” he said, and, with a rueful smile, turned on his way to make some other friend today.
