Covert
“Honestly. I really don’t know what we could do about this… I wouldn’t want to be particularly in-the-open about it. If you know what I mean.” You started as you gently prodded
“No. Actually. Tell me more about what you mean?” Somehow, her tone made you feel as though she knew more than what she was letting on.
“I mean like. I don’t know. I’ve realized now that it’s hard to trust anyone here, really. Maybe if we do anything, we should just watch for a while.” To your surprise, Amira just stared at you, thinking hard. Before long, she nodded her head in approval.
“Yeah, you’re right.” She mentioned. With that, the two of you would occasionally meet in private to talk a bit more about a way for you both to transition power from the corruption and neglect brought about from the leader of your original pack. Honestly, you didn’t know exactly where the power would go thereafter, you just knew that it wasn’t right with him. One day, you thought about bringing that all up with your new friend Amira.
“I can understand you’re feeling bad about the whole thing we talked about last time. The leader of the pack shouldn’t be so selfish the way he is. I just don’t understand that.”
“I appreciate you mentioning that.” she started. Over the period of time you both spent time together, you could tell that there was some sort of bond forming. It was only reiterated when she finally decided to open up. “Honestly. I had something else I needed to share with you.” She started.
There was a long pause, keeping you on the edge until she finally continued with what she was going to tell you. “So honestly. We’ve been talking a lot about the leader of our original pack… But… We never really talk too much about the leader of the pack we had just finished integrating into.”
“Oh. You’re right. So far, we only really talked about other specific individuals from the group in general. This is good though, it’s about time we talked about the leadership on both parts, not only just what I- I mean what we want.” You continued.
“I wanted you to know he’s actually… Trustworthy.” She mentioned.
“What?” You asked.
“He’s nothing like the leader of our original pack. He actually cares for the members. He cares for the new members as well… He cares for me.” Almost instantly, you could imply what kind of relationship the two of them had. You were actually quite touched by it. Still, somehow, the way the situation was so dark yet eerily and twistedly romantic caused your feminine heart to flutter.
“Oh wow! I’m so happy for you that you’re actually coming out of this feeling better than before.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have expected it, but it really goes to show how strong I am for having lost a child, a lover, and still found a way to move on.”
“I can understand why this must mean so much to you then.” You commented. “Well, this just makes me fully behind whatever we decide as long as it’s for the right cause.” Now that this was all settled, you felt even more satisfied with what you were doing and not long after that you both had come up with your final decision. Amira had revealed to you also that she and the Leader of the other pack had been working together for a while now and with you on board with them and the others who they have gathered up in their miniature pack.
Things were actually going quite well. The plans were executed beautifully to push out the leader of your original pack. Slowly, The leader of the new pack started to gain more power over everyone. Before long, of course, there was something else that would have come up for you all.
“Hey.” The leader of the other pack approached you and Amira. “I wanted to ask about something. We were actually trying to do an investigation on something going on. Food has been appearing in different patterns and we suspect it has something to do with the humans and their ships.” He had brought up to you suddenly.
You were actually quite taken aback, you hadn’t the chance to interact too much with the leader of the other pack just yet so it was a bit strange to you how casually he came up to you as he spoke.
“Oh? Really? So you say you may have some kind of lead with this?” You confirmed. And just as he said, it sounded like everyone figured out some kind of plan to move things forward.
“Yes, we can easily convince the others if we help the entire pack out with something large and significant. This seems to be one of those things. Of course, it’s been happening for a while now, some of the humans have been overfishing in our territories, it’s been having a bit of an impact, but hopefully things would get better soon if we just wait things out. How many fish could the humans possibly need anyway?” He started his concerned rant. “Well, listen though, if we spread that word that way like that, we can somehow infiltrate the human’s area for a while, and maybe figure out a way to really show the others who’s to blame, and that with some more effective leadership- such as yours truly- then we can become a successful pack once again.”
You were impressed by his ideas and honestly agreed with the plan. That way, it didn’t take very long for you all to start actually executing the plan. According to the collective decisions, the plan was for you to get close to the humans and lead them to the group, just so that they could see for themselves the atrocities going on as well as the lack of proper leadership and guidance from many of the members from your original pack.
Before long, the day had come and you knew exactly what you had to do. You swam for a while until you found the ships just starting to take off from the docks. The moment you swam up, they started to notice you. With surprise and shock, you could see them pointing and commenting on you- still, it wasn’t hard to keep them just on edge as you allowed them little glimpses of your shape. You could hear them commenting on whether or not you even exist but whenever you popped up from the water you could see that their ship was actually hot on your trail. You swam with all your might until you led them back to the other pack and to your surprise, it seemed as though the plan you had come up with started to work.
Others were panicked, they watched as the fish were scooped up by the massive wiry nets they were dragging through the water underneath. To your surprise, even a few of the original members were caught up in their nets. Somehow, it seemed as though the members of the new pack had gone through this before- they did live a lot closer than you all. The seals duked and weaved and when it was all over, you noticed that the original pack was cut down to almost a fourth of its original size.
In the moment it happened, you were even able to see the original leader getting dragged away as the horde of humans collected their fill. Somehow, you seemed to feel a bit weird about everything, but when it was all said and done, you were absolutely praised by the leader of the other pack, as well as your new friend Amira. For a moment, you pondered whether or not she was truly your friend after having you do something like this, but at this point, you still found it hard to care about anyone else around you. From the very beginning, your main goal was to move forward and find your next transformation.
Unbeknownst to you, after having helped out the leader of the new tribe- now the leader of everyone- he approached you, wanting to express his absolute gratitude for you and everything you had done.
“Check it out. We have eliminated a significant amount of the opposition…” He looked around. “Of course, there will still be some mourning, but we now know we can move forward as a tribe, all thanks to you.” He mentioned. “Hey, I need to show you something.” He continued after a short pause. “Something to help express our gratitude.” He finally said.
You agreed and followed right behind him. He led you into an icy cave and he presented to you as your own. In the time thereafter- yes, you were able to notice some change, and now, you were also living like royalty in this nice little nook meant for special people like you. Honestly, you were living life- you almost didn’t even think about finding your next costume for some time until one day, something particularly weird happened.
Now, everyone would work to bring you food occasionally, you were never hungry after everything you had done- even if it meant that some of the others had to make a few sacrifices here and there, as you did for them. What you didn’t seem to expect was that one day, in the pile of food and things you were brought from the others, one of the feeder penguins you were ready to tuck ravenously into seemed a bit different.
When you examined the pile of bodies in the middle of your icy floor, you noticed a kind of bright light peeking out from underneath. Before long, you noticed that the body seemed a bit flat- something was weird- wait a minute! The feathery body, the deep golden glow, even the way it felt against your fingertips as you reached into what you had grown to seen as food.
You could feel your heart beating out of your chest. It felt as though you were living with these seals for so long that you had become almost used to it. Heck, you’ve even been here for enough time that some people had even started to depend on you for some of the services you were able to do for them. At this point, none of this mattered to you anymore. This was finally it. It felt like the longest thing you’ve ever experienced but you were more than satisfied knowing that whatever you had done, you had found your way through this time around.
Before you knew it, you were sliding on the next outfit and the smooth feathery down of the penguin costume and soon you could feel the transformation starting to wash over you. The last thing you could remember was your vision starting to go blurry and white like a bright light until finally, you were ported off into your next costume’s adventure!
Written by Drifting Dragon on 10 December 2023
The end (for now)