By choice or by force Ch. 05

"But you just said?"

"Yes, after talking to my aunt about it -- just an idle conversation that we had, well it made me wonder and..." She looked across at her sister again and reached out her hand. "I only did it the once," she told her earnestly.

"But you can do it, you can choose to shift without the force of the moon," Laurie said in a dejected subdued way.

Michael looked at her in surprise and confusion, and Iris gave a little sigh.

"You have to understand, Michael," she explained. "Laurie and me; we were at best, begrudging shifters. We always hated it when the moon forced us home and forced us to stretch and break our bones, to tear our skin and crush our internal organs." Even just speaking about it caused both girls to shudder, and their faces wore an identical look of revulsion. "We never welcomed the shift when the moon forced it, and so the mere idea of choosing to do it without the influence of the full moon... well!"

"What was it like?" Laurie asked in a small wistful kind of voice. "Did it make it any easier?"

"It... yes I think that it did, but as I said I only did it the once, I... we -- James and I only did it once, and then daddy became ill and we were forced to announce our union and then our wedding... We have barely had time to breathe, let alone think about trying it again!"

"So it was the first time that you had done it too?" Michael guessed as he looked at James.

"Yes," He nodded in acknowledgement. "Like so many others I always simply accepted that once in a while when the moon was full I went through the shift process -- and the rest of the time I never even thought about it -- or rather tried not to think about it."

Michael sighed suddenly and rested his head back against the chair. "There are so many complications here," he said quietly. "And now there is this illness, is it something that we can all catch, I wonder... or is it targeting just some of our kind?"

Trudy sucked in a breath, and looked at him for a moment, as though his comment had taken her by surprise.

"My brother was very sick with this illness, and our blood was used to purge his... But even though we were in direct contact with him, we none of us three caught it."

"I was at the hospital too, and so were other medical people -- who were also of our kind," James added thoughtfully."

"And so we can assume that you are all immune to this illness?"

James shrugged his shoulders. "We seemed to be back then, but since we do not know how it is transmitted, then we cannot be absolutely sure. And even if we are, if the illness is passed from one shifter to another, it will warp and adapt, and in time, we may not be immune anymore."

James's words were like a prophecy of doom, and it was as though a shadow entered the room and settled on them all.

"Then we have no choice," Michael said decisively. "We must find a way to stop it spreading; we must find a cure for this sickness -- before it kills us all!"

He stood and gently dumped Laurie into his chair, and as he towered over them all, his shoulders seemed to widen -- and then droop as though he had just shouldered a heavy burden.

James gave a low growl and Laurie whimpered softly.

"You all seem to be a solution," he said gruffly, and his eyes rested regretfully on Laurie. "It is my responsibility to protect our kind."

"Is it?" Trudy demanded bitterly. "Or do you just protect some? After all, we are your kind too!"

Michael's nostrils flared out, and he glared right back at Aunt Trudy.

"I shall try to protect all of our people, which includes the four of you, but I am forced to agree with my uncle... I think that you must all be kept safe, and secure -- until we can discover if it is only you who can resist this... and if it is only you who can cure this!"