The Shape Of Things To Come.

By Wolfie Steel.

As a shape shifter, I don’t have many constants in my life, in fact I have just one and that is my name, I am Dax Jones, today you see me as a pure breed Doberman. Being a shape shifter can be seen as both a gift and a curse, a gift because it means that I can take on different roles, I can turn my paw to pretty much anything, from being a humble farmer to being a common thief, one of the drawbacks to being a shape shifter is the fact that I can’t stay as one character for long enough to form friendships or relationships.

I mean don’t get me wrong, I do have friends that I know from COLAS (Children Of Limitless Ability) school, but they are more like acquaintances really. I long to be able to take someone else’s paw into my own and settle down into a proper life, who knows, maybe one day it will happen, but for now I am as I said a Doberman, and I am being used as a guard dog for a warehouse that houses some top secret government material.

What the material is I don’t know, they are paying me to keep my mouth shut and my eyes open. Most nights it is pretty boring around here but tonight I think is going to be different. I have made my rounds three times tonight and each time I have seen a car travelling slowly passed the building, I’m pretty certain that it is the same car that I see each time, but obviously I can’t leave my post to check in more detail.

Now that I have my suspicions I make it my policy to check everything on my route that much closer, so any holes in fences that weren’t there before, or unknown noises that my ears pick up and I raise the alarm.

Its 2am and time for my fourth route check, but before I even begin I see the car again, this time it is parked in front of the gates that lead to the warehouse, this is now the time where I sound the alarm, and I can’t afford to let any unauthorised people get into this warehouse.

 I arrive back at my desk and raise the phone handset to call for back-up, but I don’t get to make that call. A silent attacker clubs me on the back of the head and I go down onto the floor. I remember nothing about what else happened; my next memory is of coming to on the concrete floor of the warehouse, which in itself is a mystery as I know that I don’t have access to the secure area of the warehouse.

I slowly raise my head from the floor, dizziness and nausea begin to creep over me but I know that somehow I have to raise the alarm. I manage to get to my feet and slowly make my way back into my security office, I lift up the phones handset and find that the line is dead, of course the bastards who hit me will have made sure that I have no way of getting any help.

I stumble my way outside and towards the gates, or what remains of them at least. I walk through the gates and out onto the main road; a car driver has to hit their breaks hard and skids but manages to stop just inches from my legs. I pass out with the immense blood loss.

I am aware now of a beeping sound, slow and rhythmic; my brain is still too scrambled to recognise the sound. Suddenly I begin to hear what sound like hushed voices, the voices though hushed sound as if they have an emotion in them, but what is that emotion, could it be concern or love or anger. My eyes still are reluctant to open; maybe if I can concentrate hard enough my brain will send a boosted signal to my eyes to at least get them to work.

My head pounds badly as I try to get myself back into the world of the living, and then success, suddenly one of my eyes flickers open, seconds later my other eye follows suit, well at least I am not dead.

Now I can see that I am in a hospital and now that I have that information I can tally that up with the beeping sound, it is a heart rate monitor. I slowly turn my head to the left and I see strange furs, a shocked looking young Vixen dressed in a floral dress and wearing a denim jacket, my guess would be that she is the driver who nearly ran into me.

Next I see two Rottweiler’s dressed in suits, very official looking guys so maybe they are with the government, they probably want to rip me a new tail hole for allowing the warehouse to be broken into.

Finally I see two female Huskies and a male Collie dressed in white uniforms, so two nurses and a doctor. It seems that my brain is becoming less scrambled with each passing second.

The doctor now sees that I am awake and approaches me.

“Ah your awake my friend, my name is Dr Carmichael, and I am led to believe from the two gentlemen in suits that you are Mr. Dox Jones, other than that you are quite the mystery man, as far as I can tell you have no next of kin, which for this hospital is a bit of a problem, you see while the club to the head was serious and lots of blood was lost, you have been patched up enough to be allowed to go home, but we don’t know where home is, we would also prefer that someone stay with you for a few days to keep an eye on you, but again with no next of kin we can’t do that either, so that means that we have to keep you in hospital, unfortunately we need as many beds as we can get our paws on”

At this point a Rottweiler steps forward and takes the doctor to one side, I can’t quite hear what is being said but they keep looking in my direction, especially the Rottweiler.

Eventually a smiling doctor returns to my bedside.

“It seems that a solution to the problem has been found, but the thing is that it is a little unorthodox to say the least, the Rottweiler that you just saw me talking to is a gentleman that works for the government, he tells me that his name is Mark Lannister and that he is willing to give you a place to stay, he has assured me that you will be well looked after regarding your injuries and so I am happy to release you into his care if that is okay with you?”

The Rottweiler in question does have a look of concern on his muzzle, and as the good doctor has said, I don’t have anyone else that I can turn to.

“Doctor, you have patched me up and I am grateful, so yes if Mr. Lannister is serious about giving me a place to stay then I will accept it, but first I would ask you all to leave for a moment except the shaking Vixen”

The others file out of the room leaving me with just the Vixen.

“Please ma’am, come closer, I won’t hurt you, in fact I wish to find out your name and address so that I may thank you properly for coming to my aid, and also to apologise for scaring you”

The Vixen slowly comes closer to me, though I can see that she is still a little nervous.

“My name is Laura Manson and I live at 205 Balmoral Way, which is about half a mile from the warehouse that you were apparently guarding, I’m glad that you finally came to because the last time that I saw you awake you were in pretty bad shape, anyway now that I know that you are going to be okay I guess I can head off back home, because let’s face it, it has been one hell of a night”

She turns towards the door and slowly begins to leave.

“Ms. Manson, thank you again for basically saving my life”

The Vixen just smiles weakly and heads out from my room, as she leaves the two suited Rottweiler’s and the medical staff re-enter the room, the doctor checks my vitals again.

“Okay Mr. Jones your vitals seem stable, though I would stay away from any strenuous activity for a while, other than that you are free to go, I will ask the nurses to unhook you from the equipment and then once you are dressed I will leave you in the capable paws of the Suited Rottweiler’s”

The doctor and the two Rottweilers leave my room and allow the nurses to go about their task; it takes them just a few moments to remove all the leads and tubes from my body. Once I am free of the machines the nurses leave me in private so that I can put my heavily bloodstained uniform back on.

Now that I am at least half way decent I head out of the hospital room, I see the two Rottweilers talking; they both then see me exiting the room, they then split up and go their separate ways, the one that I believe to be Mark heads towards me with his paw outstretched.

I take his paw and weakly shake it.

“Mr. Lannister, I can’t thank you enough for helping to get me out of this place, hospitals really give me the creeps”

The Rottweiler giggles a little and then turns toward the exit of the hospital. I follow him out and it is then that I realise that from here on in, my life is never going to be the same again.