unusual could Austin's shift form be? It was probably a platypus or something. Unusual to him, but not that weird.
But now Dan's curiosity was churning in earnest. What else was out there? He decided to offer some more painful honesty as an enticement.
"Hey, you got to see me learning to walk as a three-legged bear. That's the first time I've turned into a bear since I lost my arm."
"Really?" Austin asked softly.
"Yeah. Really. It hurts shifters a little bit not to be able to shift, once we grow into our animal form. You might have noticed it too. You probably have to struggle not to shift sometimes."
Austin gave a reluctant nod.
"I've been fighting it," Dan went on. Now that he'd warmed up a bit, he slipped the coat off his shoulders and reached inside the car for his prosthesis and shirt. It gave him something to do rather than focusing on the words that were coming out of his mouth—the brutally honest words, the words he'd spoken to no one. "I didn't know what would happen when I turned back into a bear. I didn't know what it would feel like, or what I'd look like. I was—scared," he admitted. "I was scared, and I didn't want to face it, until tonight. I know it's not the same thing, but believe me, kid, I know what it's like to be afraid of a shift and have to face up to your fears and get it over with."
He turned to look at Austin square on.
"You don't have to," he said quietly. "If you decide not to, that's your choice. I'll take you back to your mom's, no questions asked. But the longer you put it off, the harder it's going to be to make yourself do it at all. And right now, tonight, is about as good an opportunity as you're going to get. We're in the middle of nowhere with no one around, and you just watched me push past my fears and turn into a three-legged bear. Whatever you turn into, I won't laugh and I won't judge you. You don't have to show me, but I'd be honored if you'd trust me that much. And then," he added, "we'll find an all-night burger joint and get something to eat, because I am starved."
Austin hesitated. Then he gave a strange, twisted little smile, barely visible in the moonlight.
"Okay," he said softly.
He turned around, turning away from Dan. At first Dan thought that he meant to strip off his clothes and was prepared to look away to preserve the boy's modesty, but Austin didn't do that. He arched and rolled his shoulders, stretched out his arms, and hunched over a bit.
He's not expecting his clothes to tear up, Dan thought. Only mythic shifters take their clothes with them. What the heck IS he?
Austin arched his back and gave a soft, pained cry, and in the moonlight, a great feathered mass of wings burst from his shoulders.
Dan had been expecting something to happen, but not that. He took a step back, and another as Austin's body contorted and seethed.
He had absolutely no idea what to prepare himself for. Austin's head bent forward, his back humped up, and he hit the snow with all four legs. His head had extended into sleek feathers and a beak. A long tail with a tufted tip lashed at his flanks. He turned to look at Dan, cocking his head to the side since an eagle's eyes were not well suited for looking at something right down the center of its beak.
"Oh, hey!" Dan said as he finally figured out what he was looking at. "You're a griffin. Cool."
Austin snapped his beak. He stretched and half-spread his wings in the moonlight. Like all adolescent animals, he was gawky and awkward, with gangly legs out of proportion to his lion body and oversized paws. His wings weren't fully fledged yet, with downy tufts of baby fluff sticking out between the half-grown flight feathers.
"Yeah, you're a griffin," Dan said. "Do you know what that is?" Austin slowly shook his feathered head. "I've read about them in storybooks, just didn't know they were real. Then again, I didn't know dragons were real either, until recently. Griffins are part eagle, part lion. You look amazing, kid. Two really cool animals in one. Do you mind if I touch you?"
Austin shook his head again. The effect was very strange on his lion-eagle body. He held still while Dan cautiously stroked his