Shifting Ground Pt. 02 of 02

"Hey! Hang on there Kitten..." He started to say but she interrupted him. "I don't like you teasing me! I am not a child! You are the most aggravating male I have ever met! And...since I ran away from home I really know something about overbearing power hungry males! If you think for one minute..."

James leaned forward and hugged her tight, his hand holding the bucket so it didn't slosh. She was surprised at the contact, but also furious at him, why? She didn't know. She was about to let him know in no uncertain terms what she thought about that when she felt him laugh a little.

"I apologize Kitt, Stacy....Stacy. I apologize, all right. I am a tease; it helps to pass the time. I didn't mean anything by it, it just seemed funny and a perfect set up for a joke. I don't know why you thought I was teasing you. I thought you would be laughing at me to be honest. I mean, wasn't I the guy who was acting like an idiot hopping around and squeaking like a dog toy? Relax Stacy, okay? Lets get these fish cooked up and turn in."

The young shifter watched him walk away with the bucket and wanted to still be angry, but somehow he just defused the situation and now she was going along with what he wanted. That brought another question she wanted an answer to.

"How come you are not scared of me?" He glanced back as he got the fire going.

"What was that?" He called back to her.

"I said, how come you are not scared of me?" She asked again.

"Who says I am not?" He returned with a grin. His grin vanished and he considered his words again. "Let me try that again, you seem to not like me joking with you."

Stacy wanted to just roar in frustration. Now he was second-guessing what he was saying and she didn't want that. He was trying to be nice, but now was questioning what he was going to say in response to her feelings which she thought was great but at the same time was also making her teeth clench in frustration!

"No, never mind that! Just, say what you want to, alright?" She finished lamely.

"Okay..." he said slowly, eyeing her as he set the fish out after gutting them. She could hear the scales starting to crackle from the heat of the fire.

"Kitt...I mean Stacy..." he began.

"No, call me Kitten if you want to, it's okay. I was just being childish." She interrupted him.

A slow real smile of approval crossed his lips and he gave her a nod.

"Okay Kitten, yes, I am afraid of you, but not in the way you think. You are a young woman who can turn into an animal that could rip me limb from limb. I respect that and I respect your strength. I also know if you attack me, you will get hurt very badly. You stand a good chance of winning, but you would possibly get hurt or die if you took it that far." He shrugged.

"So yeah, I really am afraid of you, but I trust you to act according to your nature. Just like I trust Republicans to want to make money, and Democrats to be racist and Libertarians to smoke pot and ramble on about something called Bitcoin at coffee shops."

Stacy's mouth dropped open. "You really don't know anything about the Internet do you?"

James shook his head, "No, I really don't. I never had much use for it."

He flipped the rack and the other side of the fish began sizzling. "I am going to call my friend and see what we can do to get you on the move again."

James looked up at the moon, it was a beautiful clear night and it was close to full, maybe only another two nights or so. "Its time you should be moving on. We'll get you kitted out and on your way."

Stacy nodded her head, but a small part of her liked it here, and really liked the presence of this strange human. She'd had to reassess her opinion of him several times since meeting him, and...

"I think I will miss him when I leave." She thought to herself.

"Hey Kitten, how many Werewolf Alpha's does it take to change a light bulb?"

Stacy shook her head.

"What? Change!? Why would we do that?!" James said with a laugh.

Stacy just groaned and put her face in her hands.

Chapter 4: Visitors

James enjoyed his next two days with the little shifter. He purposely kept thinking of her as the "little shifter" because he was noticing a lot more about her. It was usually humid and muggy around his home and he walked around in shorts and no shoes most of the time, sometimes less since he would take frequent dips in the water on hot days. She began to copy him since it was more comfortable that way. Stacy began to wear jeans with legs cut off so short she had to push the front pockets up or they would hang down from the frayed legs holes. She also took to wearing a thin white mans shirt tied up under her moderate breasts exposing her belly.

He definitely needed to have her move on! It had been a while since he had been with a woman, the last time he had gotten a case of something that made him weak at the knees and burned when he took a piss. Took a month for that to clear up! One pass of the moon and he was free and clear of that nonsense. He was a bit more wary about women after that happened. Just because they were gorgeous and had love pillows that rivaled emergency airbags didn't mean jack.

It was all camouflage.

Stacy impressed him though. She didn't have the high and mighty superiority that came with being a shifter. Nor did she have the animalistic tendencies of a Were. He hadn't of been kidding with his joke about Alpha Weres....they were assholes!

"Pissing on trees, basically walking around and urinating on anything that they considered to be theirs!" He had told Stacy when she had asked what his problem with Werewolves was.

"Did you have much interaction with them?" She had asked. James had nodded.

"Sorry to say I have Kitten. Parked on their land as I was heading through the red state of Utah. An Alpha and some Betas came out to say hello to me and to posture me and to scratch each other's ass and show how tough they were. I didn't have any silver on me, but a lead ball to the nuts got their attention as they tried to intimidate me."

Joshua Montgomery had a run in with wolves before, they were usually pretty aggressive. He had met a were bear once by the name of Grover Solomon Brooks. It was easy to remember that name since it was so unusual. He had very much liked the bear and had hoped he would stick around, Stacy remembered him a little. She remembered beat up overalls and hairy arms and a beard with sticks in it and a laugh that sounded like a cannon blast!

"You shot the alpha in the...the...privates?" Stacy asked incredulously.

James nodded. "It got their attention. They were going to steal my stuff. I offered them a tithe or tax or fee...whatever you call it. They wanted my trailer!"

He shook his head, "No idea what they wanted it for, they were just being pricks." He paused and then almost regretfully looked Stacy in the eye.

"I gotta be honest, most of my run ins with wolves are not bad...its like what I told you before about how I view you...remember?"

Stacy nodded, "You trust me to act true to my nature."

"Exactly right. And wolves are very violent and survival orientated. They kill their weak swiftly and without mercy. They are very practical, I can respect that and so I avoid them. We need creatures out there like that to keep us sharp and on our toes. Also to use as examples when the situation comes up."

"What kind of situation would that be?" Stacy asked. James opened his mouth to speak and then frowned.

"Honestly...? I don't know. I just don't want to speak too badly about a people group if I can help it." He replied.

"But you just said a bunch of bad things about them?" Stacy asked again and James sighed.

"Yes I did and I didn't, I was just pointing out my viewpoints on them. Viewpoints from personal experience are anecdotal, not fact this is true. However I might have been hasty in just generalizing them the way I did. I have met a few really good wolves, and even a couple of vampires who were actually very nice..." James rolled his eyes. "So...disregard what I said about werewolves in general, I might have been a little bit of an ass!"

Stacy giggled and James gave her a beady-eyed stare, "Got something stuck in your throat? Want some water?" He asked, while reaching for a small bucket of water for washing dishes. Stacy held up a hand, fighting not to grin.

"I am just fine and good. I just never saw a male talk his way in a circle and then apologize like that! You argued yourself into defeat all by yourself! I didn't have to say anything!" Then Stacy began to laugh hard at that, as if saying it out loud unlocked her humor and she had to grip the sides of the cut stump she was sitting on to keep from falling over!

James gave his half smile as he watched her laugh. He realized he was going to miss the goofball. He had been alone for a long time. Mostly out of necessity, but also because he was a little tired. His mind started to drift back into the past when vampire's words of advice came back to him and he shut the door on his past, right at the year 1990. His face relaxed again and he stood up from the fire.

"I need to go to town and make a few phone calls. Go ahead and clean up the camp a bit. I should be back in a few hours. Remember..."

"Don't go near the water without throwing a stone or two in first to check for gators. Don't follow hog sign unless in cat form. If I am in the trailer don't open the door to anyone unless you have given me permission for them to come in and since no one has that permission I shoot them if they try to enter?"

James blinked at her fierce grin and smiled back. "Good job Kitten!" He said. Then ruffled her hair.

He got his truck down from the blocks and let it warm up for a couple of minutes. James waved goodbye to Stacy and headed out towards civilization.

"Civilization!" James thought to himself bitterly as he got back out on the main roads. All he saw was a crowded group of people trying to get along in close proximity with each other. He was surprised there weren't more murders. He understood that human beings in general were social animals. They like their tribes and societies. They like to make political lines and religious lines and food lines. He had stopped by one of those coffee shops with a topless mermaid on the sign, and it had a name on it from the book Moby Dick.

Starbucks! Always thought that was a good name.

They had some very tasty concoctions there and it was a guilty pleasure to drink those expensive things. Anyway, he had never heard of such an argument before and had to turn to watch it take place.

There was a woman screeching at a guy who was eating a ham sandwich. Now, the sandwich did not look very tasty, it was wrapped in plastic and had the limp look of wet cardboard but it was food and the guy eating it was obviously hungry. This female who looked to be about the thickness of a matchstick and had the voice of a scrub jay was haranguing this guy because he was eating meat.

James could not believe his ears! He had never heard of such a thing as a vegan. A vegetarian he had heard of, someone who preferred vegetables to meat. Lots of animals preferred vegetables to meat like rabbits and cows. But even they ate meat at times, just like most meat eaters ate vegetables and plants at times. Like dogs and pigs, they are opportunistic eaters. They like meat but will eat whatever comes along.

"You are eating a living thing! A creation of our Mother! You are consuming its soul you murderer! How can you sleep at night you monster!?" The matchstick kept screeching.

James began to grin as a thought came to him. He glanced around at the other customers and they all seemed to be doing their best to ignore what was going on. He stood up and walked over to the counter and got the barista's attention.

"May I please have a glass of ice water?" he asked the barista.

A moment later James loudly "tripped" on the mat in the entry way and spilled ice water all over the matchstick, who now resembled a wet Q-tip!

Many protestations on James' part and the girl left crying. The young man gave James a look of thanks and went back to eating his sandwich in peace. Later on, he found out what that woman is called a vegan. Which absolutely made no sense to him at all! It just seemed so unnatural.

Your body tells you it needs something, and you eat it. It was just that simple. It is the way of the world. If your body is craving eggs, you find and eat eggs. If none are around you make do until you find them. Why would you purposefully harm your body, or have the right to tell others what they could or could not do?

Remembering all this James sighed at this..."civilization"... that people seemed to want to have. He'd rather live in a mud puddle!

He drove to a local bar that had a phone he could use. Robert Anderson's boat should be nearby this time of year. He and his crazy, aquatic loving, fish of a girlfriend would be able to take Stacy pretty far.

"It will be good to get her away from me." James thought to himself. "Go back to a nice peaceful existence." Still, he had grown fond of the little minx.

It was best.

This was for the best...

...He figured if he kept telling himself that he might start actually believing it!

He had stopped by a friend of his and picked something up for her. She would need a proper hat and got her a curled brim alligator skin hat and a wide belt made from the same gator hide. It was handmade, and he traded the antelope pelts and horns for it and a few other personal items now stowed away in the truck. He thought back on the conversation with Robert and it was an easy sell, He had no problem getting Stacy further west. He would just have to talk to his wife...his WIFE!?

That had thrown James for a loop. Never thought that crotchety retiree would settle down. However, the couple had been pretty close and had seen some shit. He had a hook for a hand now, and maybe, just maybe he had settled down some. Either way, Robert had agreed and it was time to get moving. James glanced up at the sky and saw the moon was nearly full; this would be his last night with his Kitten.

"Stop thinking that!" he reprimanded himself.

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James could see something was wrong driving into the clearing where his trailer was parked. It didn't take a college degree to ascertain the issue either. There were four men standing outside of his trailer door and looking warily inside.

A flash of dark blonde hair in the window let him know where Stacy was, and what she held in her hands looked to be the .50 cal. Muzzleloader!

"No wonder they look upset!" James thought. He was wondering who they were, and thought they might be some of Stacy's Pack come to bring her back. Well, he wouldn't let that happen, unless she wanted to go back of course. He slowly pulled up and rolled down his window and tipped his hat at the men who looked at him with suspicion.

"Afternoon!" James said cheerily. He looked at all the men there and glanced at their hands. He jerked a thumb back over his shoulder at his fishing rod in the gun rack on the window.

"Was just here to do some fishing. You all here camping? Would it be okay if I park over yonder? I wouldn't want to be in the way..." James was saying, until a large hand rested on his forearm on top of his rolled down driver's side window.

"I would suggest you move on sir. We have a fugitive trapped in that trailer. She is armed and very dangerous. I suggest you drive away in case things take a serious turn."

James was looking guilelessly into the large man's eyes and he saw a bald faced lie. No, she was armed and dangerous...that part was true. She wasn't a fugitive at all though.

"Hey Stacy!" James called and waved his other hand. "You doing okay in there kitten? Make sure to watch the back door they might sneak in if they hadn't of found it yet!"

The man's eyes widened and he turned his head to glance at the trailer, which is when James right hand dropped to the butt of his gun holstered inside the storage compartment in the driver side door. Just as the large man noticed the movement the cap and ball pistol barrel was up under his chin and tilting his head back and up.

"FREEZE and drop to the ground! Get on your bellies or I will make this man's head disappear like a magic trick! Pres-toe chang-oe! Do you understand me?" James bellowed.

The man made a growling noise in his chest and James pushed a little harder with the barrel of his revolver. Looking past the man's shoulder since his bulk was blocking the view of the other antagonists, he saw there were 4 of them still there. Well, four including the one he had his gun on. James felt his stomach sink as he heard his passenger door open and a grip like iron grabbed his right forearm.

Most people freeze in a situation like this, but James was one of those kinds of people who don't start what they can't finish. Nor make a threat and not back it up.

The moment he felt his forearm touched he pulled the trigger, and a 36. lead ball went in and out the back of the man's head. James felt a momentary pang of sadness at the waste of life, but it didn't stop him from letting go of his revolver with his trapped right hand and catching it with his left. The hammer was pulled back while James turned to see a blonde haired man with shocked angry eyes glaring at him. The lips pulled back in a snarl that began to change. The man's nose pushed forward and hair started to sprout out and around his head as it widened. James just calmly pulled the trigger four more times into the chest and belly of an African male lion.

"That wasn't the smartest thing to do!" James thought to himself. First off he felt like he was deaf from shooting in his truck cab. Second, a mortally wounded lion in a confined space is not a very comfortable thing to experience!

James screamed and pulled at the drivers side door handle and fell out of his vehicle on top of the dead body of the man from earlier. The dying animal's death throes had been cutting and gouging him with it's claws before he was able to get out of the truck. Gasping with pain and adrenaline he stood up to see the last three men facing him, all three began to shimmer like Stacy had done when she had shown him her cat form.

One turned into a bobcat, and leapt toward him in quick springy strides. He aimed a kick at the animal, but all it did was yowl and dance aside. The other turned into a dark as night leopard and sprang through the air with claws grasping out to catch him! James dropped to his face in the dirt, which is when he realized he had been had!

It had been a double feint. The bobcat to get his attention, the leopard to distract...

He felt the wide paw tipped with claws flip him over onto his back and saw the large head of the Bengal tiger right before it's paw covered his face! James couldn't breathe, with his heart hammering he had been panting like a hyperactive chipmunk, suddenly his air supply had been cut off and his body let him know that he needed air right now!

It was at that moment he felt the tiger's teeth sink into the flesh of his stomach and pull!

He thought he heard an explosive roaring and a scream, but the pain was so incredible he almost blacked out. The weight was gone, he didn't know where it had gone to, but he was grateful he could breathe and gasped for air. He rolled his head and saw that the tiger was lying next to him, with a hole as big as his thumb in the top of it's head. He could see his own blood all over it's muzzle and whiskers.

Then he heard a scrabbling sound and an animalistic shriek of rage that made his blood run cold. He turned his head toward it and saw a mountain lion squaring off with that black leopard and the smaller bobcat. The leopard and lion looked pretty equally matched, that bobcat was a tipping point to the scale though.