Instinct

Arun

"Well, that's nice, isn't it?" Arun sneered, quickly covering the noticable flinch that he had showed. "Too bad I'll be sent back to drag his furball ass back in here. Also too bad that Doc has decided to break the legs of anyone who decides they want to make a run for it. Huh?" Arun tossed his head in laughter as Dev's face flushed red with anger. Arun crossed his arms and peered down at him from above, smirking slyly.

Dev suddenly rushed at him as if to attack him, but Arun held up one finger and tutted. "You really think you can hurt me? Let's not forget Devraj," he smiled in a menacing way, revealing his long canines, "That I could kill an adult male human within minutes of one bite. Imagine what I could do to you." Arun looked at him with sharp golden eyes in a test, to see what he would do. Dev stared blankly back. "Good, that's what I thought you would do." With a cackle, he shoved past Dev and put his hands into his pockets, sauntering down the corridors and ducking every so often to avoid his head hitting off the door frames.

Keiran

Keiran ran for his life, it seemed, or rather for the cat's life. He couldn't just let him die there. He needed to find Lupa and the others. But why hadn't Lupa answered him? Surely she had heard his howl? Keiran thought of running faster, but he could only keep this pace for so long.

He came across a tiny brook, some vague tributary of the stream he had found the shifter at, maybe. He tried his best to take deep pulls of the water while simultaneously heaving enormous breaths of air. For good measure, he rolled in the water to cool down his flaming pelt. That was better. He set off again, a little slower this time to save his energy; who knew when he would find water again?

The scent was getting stronger by the second. He must be close. The smell so fresh in his face made him that much more anxious to find the trio.

And just like that, there they were: huddled in a ring of boulders twice the size of himself. Jaidev was there, and his strange friend. Both had turned upon seeing him. Jaidev shifted in a frenzy as he leapt onto the nearest boulder, baring his teeth. Keiran fought the urge to growl back, and shifted to is weaker human form, a sign of submission. But where was Lupa? He could still smell her, and from its strength, she should be right here.

"It's okay, I'm a friend," he said to Jaidev. Jay shifted back to human form, but he still looked wary. Keiran ignored him. "Where is Lupa?"

Jay eyed his companion, who shook his head. Jay's face turned to stone, but not before he spared a quick glance behind him towards the ring of boulders.

Keiran barreled past them both, ignoring the warning growl from Jaidev, and saw the reason for their hesitation.

Lupa lay on her side. Dried blood covered her chest and neck. Her eyes flickered back and forth under her eyelids. Keiran shifted to animal form and began licking the wounds on her face and head. Any one of them by itself was small and shallow, but together with the added stress of exertion and maybe dehydration made it clear why she had passed out.

Keiran scanned his mind for anything that might stop the bleeding completely, and came up with one thing:

"She's still bleeding. I need one of you to go get some spiderwebs, as many as you can find. Those might help without infecting the wound." He didn't bother to look around to see who had gone, but from the soft footsteps setting out, he at least knew one of them had listened. "Thank you."

Keiran knew he should be worried about that other shifter he had left at the stream, but with Lupa hurt in his arms, he couldn't worry about anything else. He'll just have to fend for himself, he thought. One dying person is enough for me.

hey, I dont want to keep beating the dead horse of escaping from cages, so could I just be one of the ones already free? or should I just write as someone still in the cages?

*probably better if you were already free, it would simplify things.*

You can be already free if you want Rider, I don't mind.

Spot, hyena

As I heard more people moving around in the building, I lost my nerve. Besides, Whiteside had taken me in, given me food, water, and shelter, even if it was against my will.

I shifted back and climbed into my cage.

Sophia gave me an incredulous look. "What are you doing?" she hissed.

I spared her a lopsided grin and shrugged. "I dunno. I think I'll stick around here for a while. You go on, I won't tell."

"...okay..." The panther clearly thought I had lost what little sanity I had left. Maybe I had, it's hard to tell sometimes.

As she paced away, I yelped, "So loooong! Fareweeeeeell! Auf Wiedersehen! Goodbyyye!" I think I heard that one from a movie once, when I was real little. Probably before I went out on the streets...

Rebekah, black widow

"Mmm... new subjects." I would have frowned thoughtfully, but a spider's mouth parts don't move that way. "It's been a while since he's introduced any new blood here; I wouldn't be surprised if he did send us out for some. I could use the opportunity to stretch my legs."

"I'd just like to get out of this stupid box," Dalton grunted.

I laughed, not unkindly. "It does get dull, this life. There's only so many times I can spin a web in a day before I get extremely bored."

Moo, Is there anymore places left? If there is can I please join? I'll post later.

Conrad

"No! You don't understand! Whiteside is coming!"

Conrad took a half-step back, eyes wide, shock written across his face. Whiteside... "Damn it." He snarled, bending to lift the boy off the ground, slinging him over one shoulder and hoping that the blood wouldn't start flowing again.

He felt the shifter struggling feebly against him. "Hey!" The boy protested, "What're you doing?!"

All I wanted was a meal, and I wind up with a wounded escapee who has Whiteside on his tail. Fantastic. Conrad sighed, "What's your name?"

"Masumi."

"I'm Conrad, Masumi. Another of Whiteside's experiments, but I escaped ages ago. What I'm doing is getting you away from here." He paused, "Given the state of your neck, though, I doubt Whiteside will bother looking for you. Did anyone else escape with you?"

Too late to join?
are only modern animals allowed?

When I opened my eyes, the first person that I saw was Kieran. He was putting cobwebs over my wounds, trying to get them to heal. Next to him was Jay and just behind was Derrick. None of them had seen my eyes open. I gave a shaky smile,
"Morning, boys."
They all jumped and smiled.
"You're awake!" Keiran yelped.
"Yup, sorry if I scared you there, it's not every day I get chased around by Dr. Freak and his evil minions," My eyes flickered to Keiran. "Present company excluded, of course."
Keiran gave me a sad smile. "I'm sorry, I should have listened to you. Whitehead's a bastard."
I winked, "Welcome to the dark side, buddy. Now, shouldn't we get a move on?"
They all nodded, and with some help I managed to stand. We started to walk on, Derrick leading the way. Eventually, we came to a circle of trees, inside them I guessed there was a clearing. My ears picked up noises of laughter and talk within.
Derrick grinned at us and strode forward through the trees.
"Lookee here boys, a tiger, a dog and a wolf. We got ourself some new rebels!"
We smiled at each other and walked forward into the clearing.

*sorry, thought that some of us should get there?*

((I *think* you can still join, though I'm not in charge of the thread. One of the characters is an extinct subspecies of tiger, but if you're wanting to do, say, a dinosaur or something, you'd have to ask whoever it was that made up this thread.))

Arun

He took a seat at a square table in the middle of Whiteside's office, all of the other people who were loyal to him also sitting down. Arun leaned back on his chair and put his feet up on the table, grinning smugly as Whiteside faced his loyalties.

"My children," he began, thoughtfully looking at the tiled floor while running a hand through his short, white beard. "Some of your kind have turned against me." Arun's brow creased but he continued swinging on his chair. "And they must be brought back to me... for their own sake..." he paused, seeming to freeze on the spot. "And for my sister," he managed to choke out.

"You wish for us to find them?" one asked. Whiteside looked at the shifter with pleading eyes.

"You are all I've got," he said, and Arun rolled his eyes and chuckled silently.

"So what do you want us to do with them, just bring them back or...?" Arun suggested with a shrug of his shoulders.

All the shifters shrank back instinctively as his mood suddenly swung to anger. "Hurt them. Make them pay for turning against us," he muttered spitefully, though only the shifters with more sensitive ears could hear it.

The shifters paused in silence for a moment, waiting for more orders, but there were none. Arun kicked his chair back, laughing as the shriek of the chair legs scraping against the tiles caused some to plug their ears with their fingers.

"Come on, let's make tracks." He ambled out of the room, ducking his head under the door frame and heading for the exit.

Rebekah listened with her head to one side, a slight frown on her face. Whiteside wasn't a rational being, she'd always known that, but it would not sit well with her to torture her fellow shifters. Killing was fine, subduing and bringing them back was fine, but there was no joy to be found in torment.

Spot fidgeted as Whiteside talked. He made her feel uncomfortable; she'd always been at least a little frightened of him. But she could do this, no problem. Mostly she was just relieved that she hadn't gotten in trouble for the broken lock on her cage door. Why had she asked Sophia to help her escape? That was just stupid.

Both of them followed Arun out the door.

I'll say ive been living with Conrad

Desmond~~ snow Leopard

I jumped out of a tree and landed next to Conrad, "whats going on here? There's shifters all over the place, blood is soaking the air, not only from him, and I think I even smelled Whiteside!"

He looked at me, "They're escaping, like we did, but even more of them. The kid's injured, and he probably wont last long-"

"Take him", I replied, cutting him off, "I'll look for others and bring them back. Don't worry, I'll wipe the trail and call if I need help."

I ran off, hoping that I would find them before Whiteside, praying even. Something I hadn't done in a very long time.