I blink open my eyes to almost complete darkness, the cellar I decided to nest in only light has being filtered trough the odd missing stone or small crack in the higher walls. It's dawn, the light is pail.

I sniff absentmindedly, it smells like rain. growling at the stiffness of my muscles. I arch my back, yawning, stretching and cracking my joints.

I sit up quickly and immediately regret it. Nausea grips my stomach and my head is pounding with a skull splitting pain. I whimper pathetically and lower myself back onto the mercifully cool floor.

It must be the amount of energy I used to heal myself 'I suppose it makes sense. I've fallen out of practice an- oh, hells! Thinking is agony!' I groan at the trivial pain pulsing trough my skull.

I haven't had a head ache this bad in decades...

I clutch my cloak in between my fingers. Raising my hand to my head I send a pulse of demonic energy trough my fingers, the pain slowly subsides and I can think clearly again. I release my cloak with a huff of annoyance.

'Ow. Wow, yeah, that hurt, I mean...' my thoughts trail off and I focus on the empty ness of my stomach. Strange. I haven't felt hunger since I was small. I yelp in pain, a tugging in my chest a contracting of some sort... oh.

Oh. No. This complicates things.

Collectors like me are wraiths, we are basically the undead of demon kind. And I haven't had a heart beat in years. It's kinda... tingly.

Experimentally, I raise two of my fingers to my wrist. A pulse.

"Oh no" I mutter in a silly tone. In the words of the Good Doctor, this is, indeed, a bit not good.

I run my warming hands trough my messy black hair. I'm fucked. And not in the fun way.

The pain in my stomach is persistent however. it demands sustenance. And it shall have it... as soon as I remember what demons eat.

'What was it mum always fed my sisters and I? 'L' something... Lamb? No. Lobotomy's? No. No, that... no. Uhm... Leaches. Yeah! Oh. Eww. Mummy, why?! No. She fed us other things. I'm certain'

I shrug, stretching more. I heve myself of the floor and make for the stairs. By the time I'm up the seven steps of the stairs I'm positive I haven't conveyed how monumentally fucked I am.

I'm so fucked I'm in tomorrow and yesterday at the same time. That didn't even make sense! I'm so fucked my metaphors make even less sense the they normally do!

I sigh, trotting to the middle of the corridor, I try to remember how to shift. It has been awhile.

"Right,"- I mutter to myself, or the rats, that's less depressing... No. No, that's more depressing -"I haven't shifted in awhile, and after that Hunter shoved a Soul-shard into my chest, I'm probably weaker then normal. Sooo... this is gonna hurt like a mother fucker. A term I find myself using rather frequently" im not quite sure why I'm saying this. Like, Arthur, who are you benefiting with this?

I roll my eyes at my stray thoughts, I'm still trying to rein them in, rowdy basterds they are. Then I pause. Hunter? Soul shard? Yes, that makes sense now that I think about it. That man was not a relative of the child, -or was, not sure- he was a Demon Hunter. No doubt the Hunter somehow anticipated the collection of the child's soul. It also explains why the red crystal drew my soul to it. Or he was a a relative and just happens to keep a Soul Shard at arms reach at all times... for some reason.

I pull out the crystal from my trouser pocket. It has an angry glow to it and appears to be pulsing with light energy. I shrug and pad back down the stairs, -what with my lack of shoes- gently placing the Crystal onto a random shelf.

I walk into the centre of the nest room, more fitting then the corridor any how...

Unhooking the strings of my cloak, I toss it to the far corner, I untie the knots of my shirt next, pulling it up and over my head and tossing it after my cloak. my trousers are the next to go and soon I'm standing their in just my underwear. Normally, I would strip those too... but the rats are looking at me... Their eyes judge you. Besides, when I transform they should just fall off any way.

I take a deep breath and settle on the animal I wish to become. Charging my energy to my newly-beating heart, I release the spell.

I roar in pain, doubling over, my bones snap and reform. I can feel the skin splitting for the fur, a bit of a change for my mostly hairless body. I was right at least. This does hurt like a mother fucker!

After a full minute of agony, I am fully transformed. Woohoo.

I stand on four shaky legs. I try to step forward, only for my legs to flail about uncontrollably like I'm one of those fucking tube dudes outside car dealerships. And fall on my ass in a rather ungraceful manor.

'fine, if this is how you're gonna be. Well guess what? I'm going to fukin' embrace my inner tube dude!' I bitterly think, as, well... my vocal cords aren't in to forming words at the moment.

Ether way, I'm nothing if not determined. Besides, I sacrificed my dignity years ago.

Standing once again, I take another step, and this time I manage to move some before my long legs collapse under my 'overbearing' weight. Like, cmon'!

After a few more attempts, I have the ability to stumble about in a manor that looks more like an intoxicated newborn deer ridding a unicycle on ice. It was a good thing I had some practice with 'walking' in a quadruped form. If you can even call it that.

I sit for a second to examine myself. My fur is a silky black and I have no doubt my eyes are the same reflective icy blue as normal. As for the animal I chose, a cougar seemed appropriate. Anyone who saw the black fur would most likely wright it off as a melanistic cougar and nothing more.

Besides, it's not like anyone's going to be like, 'Oh, that animals fur is an unusual colour for its pieces . Well, the only explanation for this is the animal is a demon in disguise! Obviously!' they'd be chucked in the mad house before they could say 'conspiracy'.

Huffing, I stand and continue my stumbling's about. A rat scurries up to me. Eh, needs must. I swipe it up with a clawed paw and toss it into my maw, not bothering to kill it first. I chew it a cople times before swallowing. It's fur was greased and tasted dirty, the only saving grace was the tang of the blood on my tongue, strong enough to drown out the overall taste. Not awful but not something I'd be rearing to do again. New food source required then. I should also get a cat. Or owl.

Luckily the pain in my stomach is fading. A sharp stabbing sensation on ether side of my forehead however...

'Oww! What the hell's? What's wrong now?!' I bring a paw to my forehead and finch in pain as one of my pads makes contact with a sharp, bony... thing! I never said I was creative. It cut my pad and made the stabbing worse. Only then do I notice some of the fur on my head feels sticky. I'm bleeding. Why am I ble- oh. I manage a face paw, somehow, with the less-then-flexible limb.

'Oh! My Collector traits are draining and my genetic traits are comeing back! My horns are growing back in!' I know deep in my mind skull that this is not that good, but I can't be bothered to care. I grin... somehow. And untie the magical tether to my animal form, flowing into my human-like form. Unlike the first, the transformation back is a seamless, painless one.

I hurry to get re-dressed, eagerly hooking my cloak strings back into place. I haven't taken it off in years and am rather attached to it. Not to metoin how bloody cold it is.

By now the pail light of pre-dawn was a dark storm. I hadn't even noticed the thunder...

I shrug and get to work. This castle needs some serious work before it can be considered a lair. And I need a new shirt... and a cat apparently.

Author's Note

Hullo! It is I! Yah, yah ok you don't need to throw things! Anyway, I hope ya like-did. Sorry for my errors. But I my self am an error so I'm not sure what you expect.

Have a nice... time... thing... I don't know.