A forest bird never wants a cage.

-Henrik Ibsen

_____

Dad sighed. "You're gonna teach me?"

"Yes; I've had to shift many, many times these past few weeks."

Then, I spoke to Ashlea.

"How am I supposed to do it?"

"Don't worry; I'll help you teach him. Remember what I did when I taught you to shift? Have him do something like that."

How out of the ordinary it was, that I was giving a lesson to my father when ordinarily it would be the other way around. Well, life wasn't normal anymore. Heck, I was a shifter. I had wings.

Yeah, in no way was that normal.

My dad snapped me out of my thoughts. "So, Madelyn, how do you shift?"

I would've honestly thought that the hunters had known by now, or the scientists had figured out and told the hunters. But still, I didn't mind. It could be a useful asset when freeing Trinity and the other shifters.

"I'm fairly certain that you're a wolf shifter," I said, looking at Dad "So just form an image of a wolf in your mind and focus on becoming it."

I had drawn on the moment where Ashlea had taught me how to fly. It was mere weeks ago, and yet it felt like it had happened years go.

"Probably because so much has happened."

"Probably. But I have a question. What if the mission fails, and I'm captured by the hunters and scientists?"

"They'll either kill you, enslave you, or experiment on you. Most likely the first."

"That's really reassuring. Thank you Ashlea."

"Stop your sarcasm."

"Fine."

I sighed, then looked at my Dad. I had been so engrossed in my conversation with Ashlea that I had missed seeing my father shift.

He was clad in brownish grey fur, and his face bore a wolfish grin.

"I see you've succeeded. How does it feel?"

He said nothing.

"You can speak to shifters even if you're shifted." I explained.

"Oh. That's embarrassing."

"Don't feel embarrassed. I didn't know for a while, actually."

"This is so strange!" I heard my dad exclaim "Who would've thought that I'd be able to shift?"

"Sorry to burst your mini happiness bubble," I began, "But we still have to go rescue Trinity; remember?"

"Right. So, what do I need to learn?"

I was about to say something when Tyler spoke first.

"You'll need to learn how to fight," he began "And stealth training is also needed."

"But we were about to rescue Trinity!" I complained "And who knows how much longer she has?"

"Give me a minute; I'll see."

Tyler flew off. No! He was going to go to that hunter place! I couldn't let him get killed!

"You have feelings for him,"

"No, I don't. It's just that he knows how to fight and I don't. We need him to rescue Trinity. And he can't do that if he's meeting the same fate."

"Denial."

"It's not denial if I don't have feelings for him in the first place!"

I ignored what Ashlea had said next, because I was flying after Tyler, shouting his name over and over again. "Tyler! Tyler get back here!"

Eventually, Tyler looked at me.

"What?" he demanded.

"You can't just go there!" I exclaimed "If you died, then our situation would be even worse! We need you! I need you to help me get my friend back! I mean, I don't know if she's alive or dead, but she could be interrogated, not dead. That's what my dad suspects. He says that the hunters want me, not Trinity. I mean, I'll try and get her out, but if I can't, I'll have to give myself up."

"But you can't!" I heard him exclaim "I care about you! I can't let you go there and get killed!"

"And I can't let you sacrifice yourself to see if Trinity's alright," I replied "Do you see my point of view on this?" I stared into his eyes "We'll figure it out. But you are not sacrificing yourself for my happiness. Now come on."

He obeyed grudgingly, and I kept thanking him.

"Don't mention it." he answered.

Father's reaction wasn't an expected one, as he was a little mad at Tyler. Normally, he'd be calm, but this time he wasn't.

"Dad, calm down." I said with a sigh.

"Sorry," he replied. "I mean, we need him to teach us how to fight."

"Yeah." I agreed, then turned to face Tyler "So, how do we fight?"

It took hours and hours to learn how. There were so many moves, and you had to move the right way, otherwise you'd be in for pain. A lot of it.

Still, I kept on training. Tyler said that we had only covered the mere basics, and that there was still so much more to do.

"Madelyn, you need to know much more on fighting. You can't go in there unprepared or untrained! They'll kill you!"

I opened my wings half of the way. "Hello, I have wings."

"And there's a thing called hunters. Yeah, their entire purpose IS TO KILL US!"

I sighed, placing my hand on my forehead, trying not to shout. "And they'll kill Trinity if we don't do something. We've dodged bullets before; we can do it again. And if one of us is hit, I can heal them."

"And there's this tiny, small little thing. What's it called again? Oh yeah; they could enslave us!"

"But shifters stick together," I reminded "Trinity's one of us, and we're gonna help her the best we can."

"And if we fail?"

"We won't." I assured, not entirely sure.

"I know you're not sure." he replied. Dangit, I had forgotten to put the mental wall up!

"Out of my mind, Tyler. We're going to rescue Trinity, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

Dad had shifted back, and was sternly looking at Tyler. "Surely we're prepared enough, Tyler. It's settled; we're going to rescue Trinity first thing tomorrow morning."

Before Tyler could argue, I held my hand up to his face. "We are going to rescue Trinity. Now, we'll get some rest and we'll go rescue her once we're rested enough."

Minutes later, I was asleep.

A/N- How'd you like this chapter?

I have a question. How many of my readers (You fabulous guys and gals!) have been with me when the train-wreck called A CATastrophe (No, that's literally the title of the book) was on here? Well, here's the good news. I've gotten the first 3 drafts completed. No, that doesn't mean I'll publish it yet.

The school year is about to start, and I'm in this advanced english program.(thememeguardian you know what I'm talking about) I'm going to have the teacher(s) (There's two teachers, each teach a seperate class) help me. And then, I'm going beyond the E-Books.

I'm going to go through the extra work to make it into a physical copy.

My goal is to hold the physical copy of A Cat-astrophe (I changed how it's spelled) by the end of the 2015-2016 school year.

And I'll definitely tell you guys and gals when it's published.

Isn't this exciting?!

Anyway, please comment, vote, share, and I'll see you in the comments! Bye for now!