Sneak Peek at Harvest: The Sowing (working title)! Take a look at one of the Shifters, Katara (who also happens to be the main character)!
What are Shifters? They’re humans with the Gift to turn into a certain creature of their liking. They are limited to one and only one creature. What’s Katara’s? Why is it a big secret from her peers? Let’s find out, shall we?

. . . Katara sighed. She dropped her bag against the floor and leaned against the wall. The room was empty, save for a few punching bags and a single, worn-down, robotic replica of a human. Katara took two deep breaths. If she was going to train properly, she needed to focus. She ran her palm over the length of her sash.

Alex’s voice echoed in her mind. Her sobs shattered Katara’s calm. Katara’s jaw locked and she quickly shook her head to clear it. She didn’t have time for Alex’s problems. Not with so many of her own rising to the surface.

Three deep breaths. She clenched and unclenched her fists. She inhaled through her nose and exhaled from her mouth.

The twisted form of a Darksider came to mind. Its hulking height and long spidery fingers. Crimson eyes in the shape of rice granules and a tail so thick with muscle, its only purpose was for balance. The black form grinned in her mind, rows of shark-like teeth glittering. Blood drooled from its chin. And that was the thing that hunted her.

She jumped back, her spine straightening against the wall as she gasped for breath. No. She wouldn’t think of it. She wouldn’t remember. She would train and she would forget. She would get strong so if they ever did find her, she could escape. She could survive.

That’s what her parents would’ve wanted.

Her power started the ripple beneath her skin and travel over her bones. In her mind, Katara called it a disease and a disability, but, in truth, there was no disease in her veins. The only disability she might have was that of an abnormal life and her lack of eyesight. Yet she hated the powers given to her because they forced her into a school with other Gifted and kept her from experiencing a life without danger looming around every corner. Sometimes, she wished she was just as naïve as rest of the human population.

The power under her skin started to slide through the fabrics of her clothes and destroyed her flesh in a quick and painless act. Her fingers meshed together and her thumb traveled up her arm. Her nails bent downwards and faded to black. Her spine elongated as snaps cracked within the room. A large tail, created entirely of deep green vines, swung lazily from her behind. Her fleshy ears moved to the top of her head, grew pointed, upright, and were devoured by her so-called disease. Her nose grew black. Her teeth sharpened. She shook herself like a wet dog, her body of green standing twice as tall as a normal wolf. Vines wound every inch of her body together. She staggered to the side from the effort; with her mind distracted, she couldn’t concentrate well enough to keep the toll of changing low. And without that concentration, her body used more effort than needed to make her change, successfully exhausting her.

With a deep breath and the feeling of her sash tight against her front eyes, she sat back on her haunches. She lifted a single paw and separated the vines from each other. Every vine that created it unwound, the tips of her claws staying on a single vine as they split into many.  The sensation of having essentially many fingers move without restraint or any bones was chilling. She quickly molded her paw back to its original shape.

She stood and exhaled evenly. She pointed her noise towards the punching bag and let her green lips curl back to reveal her teeth. She attacked the bag, puncturing holes into the fabric with her teeth and swatting at it with her claws. Eventually, she pulled back and gasped for breath. . .

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