Free Under My Skin (Wildlings) by Charles de Lint Page A

sigh and put on the mask she gave me. I feel like an idiot.
    "Stick some of these in your pockets," she says, passing me a handful of energy bars. "It's in case we have to change," she adds. "You know how to focus on keeping your clothes when you change so that you've got them when you've come back out of your animal shape?"
    I nod. "That's what Cory told me, but I haven't tried it. How does that even work, anyway?"
    "Don't know, don't care," she says. "Just so long as it works. The food's for if we have to take our animal shapes. Whatever makes it work uses up a lot of energy. You'll be starving."
    I remember how hungry I was the morning Cory found me in the alley. It didn't happen the second time in my bathroom, but I'd only been in the mountain lion shape for a moment before switching back.
    "You ready?" she asks.
    "Yeah."
    I join her on the pavement. We wait for a car to go by, then cross the highway and duck into the scrub along the verge. Moments later we come to the chain-link fence that protects the wild bird sanctuary from intruders. I can smell the salt marsh, rich and heady.
    "We need to keep low," she says. "They've got cameras in there for monthly night surveys of mammals passing through. I don't know what night they do the survey, but I'm guessing they actually leave them running all the time."
    "How do you know that?"
    "I Googled the refuge. It's got its own website."
    "Of course it does."
    We follow the fence along the highway, turning when it leads us inland. Elzie starts out at a fast walk, but as soon as we make the turn, she breaks into a jog. I want to tell her that I'm not really in shape for a long run, but I don't think she's going to listen, so I just try to keep up for as long as I can. Five minutes into our run, when I should be calling for a time-out, I'm not even out of breath.
    Stronger and faster. No kidding.
    "I feel like I could run like this forever," I say.
    Elzie laughs. "You could make even better time in your animal shape, but even as humans we've got serious chops. Why do you think everybody wants a piece of what we are?"
    "I thought they couldn't figure out what causes the whole Wildlings thing."
    "Maybe not yet. Which is why they're after us. They can't duplicate what we are, so they want us to work for them."
    It isn't fair. This should be like Desmond thinks it is—totally cool. We shouldn't have to live in the shadows, hiding from our own government.
    It makes me think a little more about Elzie's agenda. Getting rid of everybody human isn't the answer, but there must be something we can do. Not just to save the natural world the way she wants to, but to save all of us.

    It should have taken us around forty-five minutes to get to the old naval base. We make it in twenty. Elzie stops us at an embankment shored up with boulders. When we peer over it, we see a long stretch of flat land on the other side of the chain-link fence, acres of pavement beyond it, flat warehouse-type buildings past that.
    "It's a big place," I say.
    She nods.
    "Do you have any idea where they keep their prisoners?"
    "No. I'm going to scout around a bit. You wait here for me."
    "I don't think that's such a good idea."
    "You should listen to him, cousin," a new voice says.
    We turn to find Cory sitting on his haunches looking at us. He's in human form but he still gives off a doggish vibe.
    How did he get so close without either of us noticing?
    Well, with me it's not such a big surprise, I guess, but Elzie's been at this a lot longer than I have. You'd think she would have twigged to his presence.
    "And why the hell are you wearing those goofy masks?" he asks.
    I want to tell him that the surf band Los Straitjackets wears them for gigs and they're a pretty cool band, but Elzie's already talking.
    "You know they've got cameras in the wildlife refuge?" she says. "Without these, they'd have our pictures on file. Maybe they could use them to track us down."
    "So go in your real shapes."
    "Yeah, like a mountain lion