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He flung up, covered in sweat, while his eyes scanned the room, like an owl looking for pray. He was panting, breathing heavily, so loud he was surprised his neighbors had not heard him. Eric gulped, came back to his senses, and tried his best to recall what he went through. His heart gently began to slow its pace, his breathing slowing back down to normal speed, and gradually, he descended back down into his bed. It was all just a dream, nothing for him to worry about - but it had not been the first time. As a matter of fact, night sweats and constant shaking had become an occasional side effect to sleep for those past few months. Attempting to forget it, he activated the LED back light on his wrist watch, reading the numbers marking the third hour of the morning. He shut his eyes, wondering if he could catch the few remaining hours of the night, which was much needed to conjure his patience for the daily troubles ahead of him. His wish soon came true, as he quickly fell to sleep.

For him, it was once again the same old morning, but with a different fight. Waking him up a little earlier than usual, he decided to lie in bed for a while. Listening to the idiotic fight, of which even seven year-olds would be embarrassed to take part in, he wondered why they did not act like regular parents.

"You god damn idiot!", his mother yelled. "I told you to take the night shift tonight, because I need the car for my stupid meeting at the city hall today! Now, because of your idiotic nature, I can't make it in time!"

"Well", replied his father. "Maybe you should get yourself a fancy car which goes along with your fancy job and your fancy shoes. Jesus Christ, I'd have a lot more peace around here."

"Yeah, 'get a new car'; great advice. I should probably get a new husband while I'm at it. For fuck's sake, the cab driver I'll be paying will far more likely be of better use than you ever were."

The yelling began to fade out as a loud slam was heard; they had finally left. Eric proceeded with his daily routine as usual - shower, eat, and brush his teeth. In the middle of doing the former, the mail of the day suddenly caught his eye. With his toothbrush hanging from the side of his mouth, Eric glanced toward the pile on the kitchen's granite countertop for a few seconds, before going back to the bathroom. He spat his toothpaste and rinsed, before returning to the kitchen to further investigate. He did not seem to understand why, but the envelope at the summit of the pile caught his inner interest. The sender, "CAA", was an organization he had never heard of before, and it was addressed to both his parents. He shot a look out the front window; his parents were most definitely gone. "Oh what the hell, it's probably worthless", he thought. He opened it up from the side and slid the letter out gently. Unrolling the folded page, he read it slowly.

"Dear Mr. and Mrs.,

We are sending this letter to remind you of your yearly report on your son. This report, as was every report prior, is due to be completed and sent to us by the end of the month of June. A second notice will also be sent a week before the deadline. If we do not receive the report by that time, we will take every action necessary to remove your child from your possession, abiding by our agreement.

As a required reminder, the agreement was as follows:

• You may not, under any circumstances, leave the country of Canada without a year's notification.

• You may not change your residence to another province, unless absolutely necessary.

• You must report every vacation, trip or movement you make outside of the province of Ontario, in order to better keep track of your whereabouts.

• You must give us a yearly report of his behavior and an update of his future plans, particularly once he reaches the age of 18.

We thank you for your cooperation and for your time. We are sure you will continue to follow the agreement, for the safety of you and your child.

Regards,

Annie Cohen,

Canadian Adoption Agency"

Upon reading the abbreviation's definition, Eric allowed the letter to fall swiftly to the floor. He was shocked. "Adopted?! How can that be possible?" Of course, it did make sense to him - he had green eyes and his parents had brown eyes. He had naturally brown hair while they had black and blond hair. He wondered how he had not clued in before.

Many questions flew through his head; why did his original parents put him up for adoption? What was the purpose of the "agreement" his parents had to follow? Why was he unable to leave the country? Why had he been watched so closely by the government throughout his life? What made him so special? The questions continued to boil under his skull, struggling to surface. Why didn't his parents tell him prior to then? If he had not found out for himself at that moment, would he have ever known? Who were his real parents? Would he ever be able to find them? Should he have tried to find them? Every question began to turn into unused energy, and all of the energy was quickly channeled into anger. Pressure was building, and he was obliged to grab onto something to stop himself from falling. His vision was blurring, his body began to tremble, and he felt like he was going to explode into several million pieces.

Suddenly, Eric heard a slam. He jumped in surprise, as his heart began to race. He stood in place, wondering what had made the sound. Mustering the courage to walk toward the window, the young man saw his parents walk out of their car, heading toward the front door of his house. He tried to relax, relieving his tension, before realizing something - the letter. He did not want them finding out what he found out. Eric ran back to the counter, picking up the letter off the floor, hid it down the back side of his pants, and watched his parents walk in the room. His mother seemed frustrated, and his father was clearly annoyed.

"...and then you just had to crack a god damn joke!", his mother shrieked, arms waving in the air. "How immature do you have to be to do such a thing, in public, when we notice we didn't have our wallet? Now I'm late for work, I'm embarrassed and I've completely lost my dignity. You, on the other hand, are a complete jackass."

"Well, anything which pisses you off makes me happy, honey. In fact, I fin-- Eric? What the hell are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at school?" He sighed, rolling his eyes. "Now you'll probably ask something like 'I need a drive', and I'll just answer something like 'You're late, it's your problem'. Now, answer my question, boy."

He was desperate for a convincing excuse; however, he knew his father was angry, and anything would have done the trick for the moment. "I just had a long breakfast, dad".

"Sure, long breakfast my ass. Mimi, will you hurry up? You complain about being late, yet it takes you ten minutes to get a stupid wallet. What a hypocrite."

"Will you shut your trap already?", Eric's mother yelled back. "I found it, now let's go, you son of a bitch."

They flew out the door, shutting it on the way. Relieved, but with questions still present, boiling under his scalp, he began to wonder whether to go to school, or to stay and try to sort everything out. But even with all of those questions present, he knew he would not have been able to answer them with the little knowledge he had over the situation. In light of this, he stuck a knife through them all and began his stroll to school. On the way there, he noticed a small group of TFRs. He had not realized it at first, mistaking them for humans, until two of them shifted into their mid-forms.

The first one was a tiger TFR. He began his transformation by changing his skin color to orange, and made room for fur of the same color. Black fur followed soon after, creating a striped pattern throughout his body. He then proceeded to shift his hands, allowing the bones to move around, which made way for his human nails to fall to the ground, allowing black claws to pierce out of the end of his fingers. His muscle mass grew exponentially, which later became obvious once his shirt gave way. His pants shifted downward to make room for the lengthening tail growing out of his spine. 30 centimeters later, it showed signs it was prehensile, when it began swaying back and forth in a very natural way. Measuring around 50 centimeters in length and about 5 centimeters in diameter, it seemed one would not have wanted to be struck by it. His face grew, revealing a snout extending around 15 centimeters in depth, while his nostrils shrunk, forming a "T". Finally, his ears shifted upward and extended into a triangular form, as he stood up on two legs, thanks to his tail. He looked much more powerful and in Eric's point of view, very cool.

The second was a lynx, and resembled his friend's transformation. His fur turned gray and his muscles grew, although not as large. His snout was only 15 centimeters long and his nose formed an "arrow" shape, which pointed in the opposite direction of his counterpart's. A considerable note Eric made was although his tail did grow to a considerably smaller size than the tiger's, the width was double of it. The claws also seemed retractable, but Eric was not very certain he was able to do so. Finally, his legs took its shape, allowing him to stand on both feet. Eric was not surprised their kind had won the 12-year war so easily - they seemed so fast, so nimble.

After seeing a process he had seen countless times before, Eric - who was still seeking answers to his questions - entered his school. He did not visit his teachers during his breaks, did not concentrate very well in class as he predicted, and did not have very much patience for anything. Several times during the day, he considered skipping class or faking sick to go back home and rest, but he figured it would not have been worth being yelled at by his parents for being back so soon. Toward the end of the day, however, was when things got interesting.

During the final period, which just happened to be French, Bob got on Eric's nerves - a lot more than usual. With the tension and frustration already at its peak, Bob seemed to have wanted to try to push Eric over the limit. When the bell finally rang, Eric slowly rubbed his eyes and got up as the fatigue and nuisance began to engulf him; however, that was quickly canceled when he received a sharp push from the smiling maroon behind him. Dodging yet another push, Eric let an unexpected growl escape from his throat. He tried his best to avoid his pursuer by heading into the bathroom, but Bob simply followed his trail, eager to continue pushing his buttons. Before Eric attempted to exit into a stall, Bob grabbed him by the shoulder and tried to turn him around, but Eric pushed him aside.

"Hey now, what seems to be the problem?", Bob enquired with a giant smirk. "Why won't you look at me?"

"Fuck off...", Eric retorted through his clenched teeth. He was beginning to get frustrated.

"Oh, did I make you mad? Did I hurt your precious feelings? I'm so sorry." He began to advance toward Eric again.

"I said, fuck, off."

"Aww come on; let's have some fun..."

As Bob went to grab Eric's shoulder once again, the former felt every bit of anger he had inside him boil to his head, struggling to come out. He did not have the capability to stop it. In what seemed to have been one single move, he jerked Bob's arm away, turned around and let out a booming roar. His eyes had changed to those of a reptile, and his face began pushing out into a snout, with his teeth sharpening the ferocious sound he had let out. Bob, petrified, backed off instinctively, and once he grabbed a hold of himself, he ran out screaming, yelling several curses as he headed across the corridor as far as he could.

Once the moment was over, the transformation began to put Eric in a state of panic. "What the hell?", he thought."How did I do that?" Suddenly, he began to hear someone approach the bathroom. Eric took every other thought and pushed it aside, rushing into one of the stalls, and locking it in front of him. He tried to make the least noise as possible in order not to be noticed. Fortunately, through the door crack, he managed to see it was not Bob, but rather another classmate from his school, who simply went to use the urinal. He tried to feel his new snout, but when he went to touch it, he noticed it was gone. Stunned once again, he noticed there was no one in the bathroom, giving him the chance to exit.

Once outside, he felt his face, his nose and his ears - everything was fine again. He was flabbergasted. "What the hell just happened?"