The Otherkind

•Chapter 1•

Years have passed. Eris is twelve years old, and she continues to live in the safe house she has known all her life. Her little family hasn't changed, and she doesn't believe it ever will. Each of them is here for protection from the unforgiving world. Leo, who has a lion's tail and razor sharp teeth. Ari, who has feathers covering her arms where skin would be. Ray, a boy with a lizard tail and scales like freckles on his pale cheeks, and his twin brother Lukas, who has scales on the backs of his hands, as well as a tail like his brother's. Their guardians care for them, Alli, a woman with canine ears and a tail with gold colored fur, and Kora, her wife, who had black stripes across her skin and the tail and ears of a tiger.

Eris' room hasn't changed much in the last seven years. She stares at the stripes on her walls, the paint now slightly damaged in some places having been in a child's room for so long. Her toys have all been passed on to another safe house by now with younger children. Her bookshelf grows dusty as she's read every book she owns more times than she can count. Her sketchpad lies on her desk full of her drawings, pencils and erasers next to it that haven't been touched for a while as she waits for one of the guardians to bring her a new sketchpad.

Eris drags herself out of bed and proceeds to the living room, one of the only rooms in the house with a nice window in it. She watches the sunlight dance through the leaves of the trees near the house. The fields around her home are empty of life, except for the grass and flowers. Eris flicks her ears at a sound from a room down the hall.

Ari emerges from her room and sits beside Eris at the window. "Hey, Eri? Have you thought about my idea?"

"Yeah, I have," she sighed, "but you know it's not safe for us to leave here, even if it is only for a little bit."

"But what are the chances of us being caught if we go out and explore just once? No one lives nearby as far as I know...." Ari trailed off as Eris gave her a look.

Eris glanced over at her best friend. She had known Ari since she had come to the safe house, as they had both arrived near the same time. Neither of them remembered anything before this place, and growing up together. Ari was the only one in the house who got to call Eris "Eri", and she loved having a nickname from someone.

Eris turned back to the window with a frown. She wished she could go outside and go on a walk. She wished she could go to the store with Alli and Kora, and to school with other kids, but unlike her guardians she hadn't yet learned how to hide her "freak features" well enough to enter society. Practically everything she knew of outside events came from her television, which Kora told her was not always accurate.

Eris sat in her room alone after sunset, wishing she could go outside and see the night sky with its glittering stars and full moon. Still, she knew the guardians didn't want her leaving the house, especially not alone. Her tail twitched as she heard a knock at her door. "Come in," she called to whoever was outside.

Ari came in, wearing a sweater and her shoes. "Wanna come outside with me now that it's dark? I want to go stargazing! Plus, everyone would be asleep by now so it's safe."

"You know Alli and Kora would be upset if we left the house without permission. Besides, what if we're seen by someone? Not everyone is asleep at night." She crossed her arms, hoping to convince Ari this was a bad idea.

"Oh come on Eri, what are the chances someone will be out this late to see us? There's hardly any people who live near us anyway. Plus, Alli and Kora can't get mad if we don't tell them right? Please come with me?"

Eris reluctantly agreed to follow Ari outside. She put her shoes on cautiously trying to be as quiet as possible. They slipped outside into the chill night air, and lay down in the grass together.

Eris looked up at the sky, a blue-black blanket over the world covered in shimmering specks of white. The moon's pale light touched everything around her, making the grass seem to glow in the darkness. She let herself relax, happy to be somewhere other than the house for once.

***

A man was out walking his dog late at night, annoyed that it had woken him up just for this. He stared at his neighbors' house as he passed it. They're such odd people, he thought, they hardly come outside, and what kind of house has hardly any windows?

He noticed movement in the field near the house. That's funny, no one comes outside so late. A robber maybe? A bear? I wonder if they're okay. I should go check on them, that's what a good neighbor would do, no matter how strange they are.

The man left his dog at home and went to check on his neighbors, thinking the silhouette may have been something dangerous or suspicious. Approaching the house, he saw that there were people outside, two children. He wondered if perhaps he should call out, ask them if they were alright. As he crept closer to the figures, he realized there was something odd about one of them. Creeping forward, he tried to get a closer look, worried that perhaps these children were freaks, dangerous human hybrids who are said to attack normal humans on sight. If they were, they might be sneaking up on his neighbors and planning to do something awful to them. He felt a stick crack beneath his foot. The two children bolted inside as soon as they heard the noise. They must live there, he realized, if they were sneaking in they wouldn't have run towards the house in fear. As they ran, he saw something that confirmed his worst fears. One of the children clearly had a tail, and if she was a freak it was likely everyone else in that house was too. Freak houses were something he had only heard stories of, buildings where the humanoids gathered in groups to plan attacks, gather supplies, and raise their young.

The man raced home in fear, trying to put as much distance between himself and the freaks as possible. Slamming his door behind him, he locked it, worried that he had been spotted and one of them had followed him back to his house. Panting and sweating, he lay down in his bed, trying to slow his racing heartbeat. Fearing for his life, he knew exactly what he had to do the next morning. The police would come and get rid of the freaks and he would be safe once more. He eventually fell into a restless sleep.

***

Eris was lying next to Ari looking up at the night sky, when the two girls heard twig snap. Without a word, they glanced at each other, faces filled with terror, and ran into their home as fast as they could. "You don't think that was a person, right? No one comes outside this late, do they? We couldn't have been spotted," Eris said in a panic, trying to calm herself and her friend.

"It was probably just a deer. What kind of person would be walking around someone else's yard in the middle of the night anyway?"

"Yeah, okay, you're probably right. Should we wake up Alli and Kora, just to be safe?" Despite Ari's reassurance, Eris was worried. If they had been spotted, everyone they cared about could be in danger.

"Are you crazy? No way. If we wake them up, we'll just get in trouble for going outside. Besides, like I said, it was probably just a deer or maybe a rabbit or something. I'm sure it's fine, and I don't want a lecture from them in the middle of the night."

Eris nodded, deciding Ari was probably right. If they woke up their guardians over nothing, they would get in trouble and would have to do extra chores for the next week. It makes more sense to just go to sleep and forget about this, Eris thought, Alli and Kora don't have to know, we won't get in trouble and I'm sure Ari is right, it was just an animal.

Eris and Ari went to their rooms, agreeing to say nothing of their stargazing adventure that night. As Eris fell asleep, she couldn't quite get rid of the fear she had felt earlier. Even knowing that the sound was likely just an animal, she was afraid. She couldn't help but worry that there really was someone outside who had seen her, and knew about her secret. If they were wrong, and it had been a person, they had put everyone they loved in danger. Eris tried to calm herself. It was nothing. If it was a person they would have called out to us, right? Despite her self reassurance, her tail fur was still spiked in fear as she lay in bed, hoping that when she awoke the next morning everything would be alright.