“Faster, Yimkur, we need to go faster!” I screamed, not sure what to do.

A scene from years ago flashed in my memory. I was only 4 years old then- not a worry in the world. It was different now. Then, I had been riding a red and yellow push car.

“Faster, Daddy, faster!” I giggled.

My dad sped up behind me, and I rushed down the sidewalk, with him pushing me all the way.

Such a bitter contrast to where I was now. Back then I was a giggly little girl having fun on a toy car, now I was a serious young woman, racing for my life on a giant flamingo. Was this really the best I could do? A freakin’ flamingo? That’s just my luck.

“Yimkur, can’t you change to something a little faster?” I pleaded, glancing behind me nervously.

The big pink head in front of me shook back and forth. I groaned and urged, “Keep running!”

He sped up a little, but he couldn’t do much on those unsteady, flimsy legs. Why did he have to be so stupid sometimes? I loved him more than anything, but I wished he would think before he did things in case something like this happened and he couldn’t change into something different.

Yimkur was my boyfriend. That’s right. My boyfriend was a giant flamingo. He was usually a very attractive human boy, with spiky blond hair and bright green eyes. Since he was born in Trilastia, like me, he had a special power. His was one of the most useful out of all the Trilastians, because he could turn into pretty much anything that moved. Cars, birds, animals- you name it. Usually, he could turn to something else at any moment, but something was wrong. Something was very wrong. He was stuck as a flamingo, and I really had no idea why he changed to a flamingo in the first place.

Riding on my giant flamingo boyfriend wouldn’t be too much of a problem, and might even be funny, if it weren’t for the fact we were being chased. I had no idea what to call the thing that was chasing us, but I knew it could kill us both in one snap of its jaws. It was definitely sent by Perlogan, my archenemy. His goal was to destroy all the Trilastians (except for himself, of course), so that he could take over the world without us trying to stop him. We stopped lots of people like him, but most of them were regular humans. Since he was an angry, bitter Trilastian, it made things much harder. It didn’t help that he was the most powerful Trilastian ever known.
His power allowed him to create anything with a single drop of blood. A power like that is intended to be used when the odds are against him and he is injured with nothing left to fight with. Then he could use a drop of blood to create a weapon or even a wall to protect him. But Perlogan used his power for evil, using the blood from Trilastian prisoners to create monsters used to kill other Trilastians.
One of these monsters was chasing us right now. It was larger than the others I had faced so far, including the one that had taken half of my pinky finger and injured my leg. That creature hadn’t been particularly scary looking, it was merely a giant wolf with human intelligence and super speed. This one was scary enough to make a small child crap their pants. Or even a grownup, if they weren’t real brave. It had a slimy, pale yellow face, that looked almost like a mummy. There were giant fangs sticking out of a pinkish mouth that had red around the edges, which looked suspiciously like blood. The rest of it’s body was hard to see because it was moving fast, but it looked like an eagle that had been shaved and scrunched up.

Of course, I wasn’t a pu**y, so the monster’s frightening appearance wasn’t a problem. It was the fact that its mouth alone was big enough to swallow an elephant whole. And I had no way to fight it. Because of the nature of my powers, I required a strong partner. In addition to my ability to shoot any kind of bullet or arrow from my fingertips, I could merge with any other living thing to combine my powers with theirs. There was, of course, a catch. I could only use my bullet powers when I was merged with another living thing. So when my partner was a flamingo, I was pretty much useless. My powers alone couldn’t defeat the beast that was chasing us.

It wouldn’t be long now before the creature would catch up to us. I needed Yimkur to be able to turn into something else. Our lives depended on it- maybe even the world.

“Come on, Yimkur! You can do it! Just focus really hard. Think of what’s at stake here! I know you can do it. I believe in you!” I shouted.

The creature was now only a few feet behind us. Come on! Suddenly, I was riding in a fancy racecar. I rolled my eyes.

“Please tell me you didn’t take extra time to imagine up a really cool car,” I said.

The display on the radio read, Maybe... But I changed, so there! And we’re pulling away from the creature now.

I looked back. He was right. My heart filled with new hope that had been gone a few moments ago. Then it went away.

“CLIFF!!!” I screamed, pointing straight ahead.

The brakes screeched at the car flew forward, flipping onto its back and skidding across the rocks. My head hit the steering wheel, and I felt a warm stream of blood flow down my face. The glass at the front of the car shattered when we hit another rock, and I closed my eyes just in time to avoid getting them poked out by glass. There was a terrible crunch as the roof hit another rock, collapsing on my head.

I lost my vision for a moment. One more bump and I’d be out cold. I had to get out of the car- NOW. My hand shook as I tried to grab hold of the door handle. The door was too crunched to open easily. I pulled back my legs and kicked it as hard as I could. A sharp pain shot up my right leg, but the door flung open. The car was at the very edge of the cliff. I didn’t know if I could make it, but I leaped out from the door.

When I landed, the impact knocked the wind out of me. I was pretty sure several ribs were broken, and probably my leg. My whole body was covered in scratches and bruises, but it wasn’t over yet. Although I hit the hard ground, it was the very edge of the cliff. Out of all the rotten luck I had, this was by far the worst. The rocks underneath me crumbled from the commotion, and I felt myself drop. Although I could still barely see, I reached desperately, and my hand caught hold of a ledge. I hung there, clinging for life. I couldn’t see the ground in the dark night, but I knew it was a long way down. Just as I thought it couldn’t get any worse, the creature came running up to the edge of the cliff.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the sports car fading into the distance. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I screamed, with a very weak, hoarse voice, “Yimkur!! NO!!”

I glanced at the creature, hovering above me, about to tear me to shreds, then I glanced back into the dark depth below me. In my head, I saw Yimkur when we first met at school.

The line for trust falls came to me, and I looked behind me to find a boy staring back at me. At seven years old, I was still convinced that boys had cooties. He reached out his arms, but I crossed my arms and shook my head.

“Oh, come on. Don’t you trust me?” he asked.

I had to believe that Yimkur had somehow changed into something else on the way down, and he was waiting there to catch me.

I whispered, “I trust you.”

Then I let go, just as the creature swiped its killer claws at the place I had been. A falling feeling filled my stomach as I shut my eyes tight and fell into the dark expanse below.