A human

The on-repeat dream of the last conversation she had with her late mother made it hard for Iyya to keep asleep.

Iyya was up already. And the day had finally ended, and it was now nighttime, and she did not want to close her eyes anymore.

The last conversation she had with her late mother was going to come back again in her sleep. It scared her so much. She thought it was way better to stay awake than to sleep again.

She was up looking at the sky. Mesmerized by the midnight sky, with the wolf sound asleep beside her. Suddenly, she heard movements.

Looking to the side. She then saw torch lights moving closer and coming in their way.

The Park Rangers had found them.

With fear clouding her, she pinched the wolf through its fur using her claws. To wake the wolf up. Just what she expected from this wolf. That she now knew to be as much a human as she was. When the wolf shot, its eyes opened.

Looking straight at the torchlight, moving closer. The wolf hurriedly picked her up. Put her back on its back. And the running began again.

***

It had been a night of running through the Serengeti and when the sun went up, the morning light came into Iyya's eyes.

She did not believe what she saw in front of her eyes. There was a sign showing the beginning of Serengeti Park.

Finally, they made it to the Serengeti Park gate.

Finally, they were almost making it out of the park.

The joy Iyya was feeling made her want to fly off the wolf's back. But she stayed put.

If she was in her human form, she would jump up high to celebrate the milestone.

The human settlement was so close within their grasp of a few miles.

No more wild animals and no more Park Rangers.

They survived.

They made it.

But wait…. When she thought about it longer, she shouted in her mind. No....!

She was back in déjà vu. Back to Park Ranger, sirens and gunshots will come on their way. As soon as they come face to face with people outside the park.

The people will surely report the wolf that left the park to the park authorities. It was safe for her in the human settlement. She would be treated as a domestic bird, but the wolf would be in total danger.

Still studying the wolf, it was clear its thoughts were more like a human and a clever human. It would not be here without a plan.

Iyya chose to believe there was a plan in place.

It was time for Iyya to live in the suspense of what would happen next.

On the last bush just before the gate. Before, they walked out into the opening.

Suddenly, Iyya felt her body being lowered to the ground.

She stood still, waiting impatiently, a lot of thoughts running through her mind. What was next? What would she do to get back to Zanzibar?

What did she need to do to meet her stepmom as soon as possible? She had tried to meet her for the last five years and failed!

What was different now?

That was a very hard question, but there was one slight opening of hope for that.

There was no longer the watchman watching her twenty-four-seven.

In the coming few days, during the time of the month, she would have a shot at communication.

She would have a way out to ask for help. But that won’t be happening now until later in days to come.

Until then, she needed to survive, and she could wait.

She could wait patiently as long as she was not in ZALA or the Serengeti Safari Park trying to survive the deadly animals. There was hope.

Iyya turned her eyes back to her environment. Planning to say her last goodbyes to the wolf. She felt bad, but that was it. They will all need to walk their separate paths from now on.

She desperately needed to meet Heina and if that meant walking out of this safari park with or without this wolf. She was walking out either way.

But before she could do anything. What she saw made her eyes almost poke out of her socket balls.

Her feathers stood up. She felt panic take over.

She didn't believe what was happening. She tried to understand, but couldn't.

At first, she thought something had hit the wolf and broken its bones, probably the park rangers who had finally found them.

But scanning the area, there was no one around and the sounds of consecutive breaking of bones on their own inside the wolf's body told her otherwise.

The wolf growled in pain, the paws on the ground, bones cracking consecutively, again and again, the chest forced into a bending position.

The head raised looking at the sky, knees forming as they pushed the wolf lower onto the ground. As the wolf breathed in pain, it looked like it was about to die.

Iyya looked into the wolf's eyes. Not knowing how to help. They had tears and had got diluted in color, changing their gold color to red, then black.

The black paled and then they became human, blue-colored eyes, the color of the ocean. She took a step back, scared more.

More growls came out of its chest. The sounds had now changed, and it was more of a human-pained voice than a growl.

Iyya then darted her eyes to the paws on the ground, which in seconds no longer existed, replaced with a human hand, fingers, and human fingernails.

The human now held the ground with all the force he could gather to balance himself.

He shook, each piece of the bone in his body clacking and coming out of its socket behind the now-forming skin.

His legs, which were now visible, tried to balance him on the ground, and more pained cries came out of him.

The total transformation was almost finished. The long black hair, the hands, and the legs were all visible.

The face shifted, and the body shifted as the fur hid behind the human skin completely. The whole scenario scared and excited Iyya at the same time.

She was now looking at a gorgeous human man, the most handsome she had met yet. He transformed from a wolf in front of her eyes to a human.

A human.

No…Not a human, but a werewolf.

And the last conversation with her late mother this time around hit another nod in her mind.

The probability of what she said turning into the truth scared Iyya.

She could hear the voice of her late mother ringing in her head as she said, “We are weredragons. We are the last living dragons on this earth.”

“Do you mean we can change into dragons and fly in the air?”

“Yes…. Iyya, we can shapeshift into dragons.”

“But why haven't I seen you or anyone shapeshifting all my life, mama?”

“Because not everyone has been as blessed as we are. We… Iyya... come from a long line of weredragons. We have been given the greatest gift of all.

“We are born from fire with the extraordinary ability to breathe it out from our lungs. We are the only beings who can hold and contain that large amount of fire.

“When I was younger, I believed my gift was a curse. We thought the best way was to eliminate it.

“So did my parents and their parents. Hence, I was fine with cutting off my legs and arms. And clocking my dragon to bind it away.

“Our power comes from our heart, the heart of the dragon, but our strength comes from our legs and hands. My legs and hands would make me fly. And I did not want to.

“That kind of power would make me too strong. A threat to all humanity. It would make everyone haunt me out of the fear of the future.

“It would make werewolves and witches do the impossible to haunt me and kill me. And I did not want that life for myself.”