A bear stood before her, staring at her, a burly animal so small next to her dragon form.

The cries rose from the sky.

"Sniff her out! Find her! Follow her scent."

Issari had spent many hours on her balcony back in Eteer, watching the demons sniff across the city, seeking weredragons.

They'll smell me. They can find me anywhere. I shifted into a dragon; the starlit magic fills me now, forever leaving a trail for them to follow.

The bear growled.

"I'm sorry, friend," Issari whispered. She grimaced, guilt pounding through her, and lashed her claws.

The bear whimpered and fell.

As the demon cries grew closer, Issari worked with narrowed eyes, struggling not to gag. With claws and fangs, she skinned the bear, ripping off a cloak of fur, skin, and blood. The meaty, coppery smell filled her nostrils, mingling with the stench of the approaching demons.

Her work complete, she stared down at the skinned carcass. She grimaced. She had not planned to eat this animal, and the sight disgusted her; back in Eteer, she never ate meat. Yet now her stomach growled, clanking her scales. She blasted out fire, roasting the meat, already imagining the taste.

I need this. I need its energy. I've not eaten for days.

She growled and let her flames die.

No. No! With a dragon-sized stomach full of bear, she wouldn't be able to become a human again, not unless she wanted her stomach to burst. And now she needed to run as a girl, hidden, quiet, disguised.

For the first time since fleeing Eteer, she released her magic.

Her white scales melted like snow under rain. Her wings pulled into her back, her claws and fangs retracted, and her body shrank. She stood in the forest, a woman again, shivering in a white tunic, her black braid hanging across her shoulder.

And still her stomach growled, and still the meat tempted her.

Grimacing, she tore off a chunk of half-cooked, bloody bear meat and stuffed it into her mouth. She chewed, struggling not to gag, and she hated herself, and she cried, and still she savored the sweet meat and hot blood.

"We smell her!" rose cries behind, not a mark away. "We smell the whore. Find her! Break her!"

Panting, still chewing the meat, Issari grabbed her bloodied cloak of bear fur. Bits of flesh still clung to it. Her stomach roiling, she wrapped the dripping coat around her, shielding herself in a cocoon of its wet, hot smell.

With any luck they can't smell me like this.

She ran three steps, heading away from the shattered canopy and into the depths of the shadowy forest.

Blood dripped down her face, her stomach gave a sharp twist, and she couldn't help it. She doubled over and gagged, vomiting up her sparse meal.

"Find her! Rip out her spine!"

She kept running.