Animage Academy

  Year Two

  Qatarina & Ora Wanders

  Copyright © 2021 by Qatarina & Ora Wanders

  Wandering Words Media

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Edited by Anwuacha Dandy Samuel and Dorcia Beland

  Cover design by Ryn Katryn Digital Art

  Dedicated to all our Australian, African, Indian, Korean, Japanese, and European friends who helped us bring these characters to life.

  Authors’ Note

  As wanderers, we have traveled to a lot of places and met a lot of people. The people and locations in this story are indeed based on those we have met in our travels. All the characters come from different cultures, and we have drawn upon details based on extensive research as well as information learned and shared from their real-life counterparts. All this with permission, of course.

  Please know we have respect for all cultures, and if any character details come across as disrespectful, it is absolutely not intended.

  This story—even though it takes place in a fantasy setting—addresses many real-life issues like bullying, gaslighting, and bigotry. This is especially present in a teenager’s world. The goal here is to speak to these very real issues, but with a different fictional twist. Instead of the students being teased and hated on for their race, gender identity/sexual orientation, or upbringing, they are segregated by shifter species and status on the food chain.

  The cultural differences play a big part here as the students—predator and prey alike—experience all kinds of conflict before they can achieve unity.

  The elite rule classroom, but find out what really makes them elite…

  Qat & Ora

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Also by Qatarina & Ora Wanders

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  1

  "Mom, have you seen my other shoe!?"

  "No, did you lose it? Wait, didn’t this happen last year, too?"

  Lucy Carrington appeared in her daughter's bedroom doorway.

  "Maybe," Ava answered as she haphazardly tried to braid her long purple hair while simultaneously searching for her missing shoe.

  "Your Converse, right?” her mother continued.

  "Yeah, the ones I always wear."

  "I thought you stopped wearing them while you were in school."

  "Yeah, but then I decided trying to fit in with all those stupid rich shifters wasn't worth my time. My sneakers are more comfortable." Ava attached a scrunchie to the end of her hair and dropped to her knees to search under her bed.

  "I'm quite positive the same thing happened last year the morning you were supposed to leave." Lucy placed her left fist on her left hip. "It seems history is repeating itself. Are you at least packed this time?"

  "Define packed," Ava muttered from under her bed.

  "Packed, as in you have placed all your belongings that are going to the academy with you this year in your suitcase already."

  "Well, if you put it like that…" Ava pulled her head out from under the bed. Still no shoe. "As a matter of fact… No."

  Lucy rolled her eyes. "Sometimes I can't believe you’re my daughter."

  Ava held her tongue. She was about to make a comment that perhaps she took after her father in that aspect, but she knew her mother wouldn't handle it well. While their relationship had made leaps and bounds over the summer in a positive direction, it still hadn't fully recovered. Ava was still bitter that her mother had held valuable information about her father from her for sixteen years. And she knew her mother was probably still upset that Ava had done so much snooping around to find out more information about him while she was at the academy.

  To be fair, Ava would have found it all out anyway. But that was beside the point. Being admitted into the most elite shifter academy in the world was a big deal to Ava, especially because, as far as she knew at the time, she only shifted into a tabby cat. But little did she know, she was actually a dyad—or dual shifter—meaning, she could shift into two different animals. She had to shift into the tabby cat first, but once she did that, she was able to reach into her truest self and pull out her second form: a unicorn.

  Moving across her room, Ava caught a flash of her reflection in her vanity mirror. There it was. Her newest shifter mark. It had shown up over the summer. A black silhouette of a unicorn across her left upper arm. Just opposite the black silhouette of a tabby cat on her right arm. The cat mark had shown up when she was twelve, which was pretty typical for shifters, but her unicorn mark had slowly materialized over the past few months. And now she wore two full shifter marks. She had never met another dyad in her life so she didn't even know it was possible. Until now.

  She made her way back to her closet to see if she had somehow missed her other shoe the other thirty times she went through it that morning. Finding out she was a unicorn was obviously an enormous shock because she had no idea that not only did unicorns still exist—she had been told they were extinct—but also that's what kind of shifter her father was: a unicorn shifter. She'd had no idea.

  And it definitely would have been nice if her mother had bothered to mention that at some point over the last sixteen years. But whatever. Water under the bridge now. Or so she kept telling herself.

  “Woof!"

  "Buster!" Ava shot her head to the left to see her pet pug running into her bedroom holding—yes—her other shoe in his teeth. "You took my shoe again! I should’ve known." Ava ran toward the little dog.

  He saw her coming and tried to run the other direction, but Lucy jumped in his path and scooped him up in her arms before he had the chance to dart away.

  After retrieving her shoe, and wiping off the dog slobber, Ava turned her attention back to her suitcase.

  "Do you need me to help you so we can make sure you're ready on time?" Lucy offered.

  "No, I got this. But thank you." Ava gave her mother two thumbs up and a sarcastic smile.

  "I'll have breakfast ready for you when you get downstairs." And with that, still clutching Buster, Lucy headed down to the kitchen.

  After Ava finished packing, which didn't take her nearly as long this year as it did the previous year because she knew what she needed this time—she also packed only one suitcase instead of the four she brought the first time—she headed downstairs to the lower level of the two-story apartment she lived in with her mother. Her single mother, Lucy, who also happened to be a tabby-cat shifter.

  Lucy stood in front of the stove, flipping bacon with a spatula. The two-dimensional black cat on Lucy's upper arm looked like it was dancing as the muscles of her bicep flexed when she maneuvered the spatula.

  Ava kept both of her shifter marks carefully covered with her signature Oxford button-down shirts the entire summer. They looked just like tattoos, and she was only seventeen, so she didn't want to answer any questions about why she had them.

  "We have to leave here in about twenty-five minutes," Lucy said, facing the stove. It took Ava a second to decipher the words because her mother’s voice sounded so muffled.

  "Sounds good." Ava sat down at the kitchen table and leaned forward to scratch Buster behind his ears. "It's such a relief not to have to take an Uber this time."

  "I agree. Having that car is such a blessing now. I'm glad I could finally afford it." Lucy flipped the bacon onto a plate and handed it to her daughter.

  "Thanks, Mom." Ava wasted no time stuffing her mouth full.

  Lucy sat down at the table across from Ava, although she didn't have any breakfast for herself. "I'm really excited for you—I want you to know that. I'm proud of you and can't wait to see what you do now that you've discovered this other side of yourself." She reached across the table and covered Ava's hand with hers. "You are going to do amazing things."

  A little more of Ava's remaining resentment toward her mother faded away at that statement. "Thank you, Mom. That really means a lot to me."

  Lucy just smiled. "And just remember, I don't care how famous and revered you become. You still have to clean your room."

  "I see you decided not to bring enough luggage for an entire army this time," Paul teased Ava as he saw her approaching.

  Ava and Lucy had just arrived at the bay and exited the vehicle to wait for Ava's point-of-contact person—Paul—who would escort her back to Animage Academy.

  Securing her backpack on her shoulder, Ava responded, "I learned my lesson from last year. I don't want to listen to Michaela g
ripe again this year."

  Paul let out an unexpected snort of laughter. "Michaela will gripe no matter what. But I'm glad you didn't bring as many bags." He then looked up and smiled at Lucy.

  "You must be Ava's mother." He extended his hand.

  "Yes, I'm Lucy, or, if you prefer, you can call me Mrs. Carrington. You must be Paul?" She shook his hand daintily.

  "That's right, Ma'am." He gave her a little salute, which was weird. "Paul Pearson at your service. I'm in charge of getting your youngsters safely to the ship…and their belongings safely to their rooms."

  "So you're not a teacher then?" Lucy tilted her head to the side. "And you don't look like a student."

  "No, Ma'am, and no, Ma'am." His Australian accent sounded even more pronounced somehow. He shook his head as he grabbed Ava's brown bag and hoisted it, with one arm, up onto his shoulder. "Just the delivery guy." He gave her a little wink, then, "Come on, Ava."

  Ava rushed to throw her arms around her mother. "Bye, Mom. I love you so much!"

  "I love you, too. See you in nine months, Sweetie." She held on to Ava tightly for a few extra seconds and then let go.

  "Here I go again!" Ava called out as she ran after Paul.

  She followed Paul to the dock and then on to a houseboat. This was much nicer than the rickety little motorboat from the year before. That entire ride had terrified her.

  Ava knew the portal to the academy was in a different location this year. This time they would apparently access it from a houseboat in the bay.

  "Well, look who it is," said a familiar voice. Michaela sat reclining on one of the cushioned seats with her combat boots propped up on the railing. "The famous unicorn shifter."

  Next to Michaela sat Zeke—he would be a senior now and was wearing even more interesting makeup than he had been the first time Ava met him. He’d gone for more of a clown look this year. The guy who had been there with them the year before—Ava couldn't remember his name—was apparently not with them this time. Probably graduated.

  Paul checked his watch. "We're still waiting for one more."

  “A first-year, I assume?" Ava asked.

  "That’s my guess," Paul continued to stare at his watch. "Probably had trouble finding it. I'm gonna go check on her." And he scampered off the boat onto the dock and disappeared.

  Ava plopped her bag down on an empty seat and settled down across from Michaela and Zeke

  "So do you have a new shifter mark to go with the purple hair now?" Michaela asked as she picked at her fingernails. Michaela’s hair that was hot pink when Ava saw her at the end of the school year was now a glowing yellow.

  "Yup. It showed up over the summer but hasn't come in fully quite yet; it’s still kind of a faded gray."

  "That's still dope though." Michaela abandoned her fingernail picking, uncrossed her legs, and leaned forward. "You're a freaking unicorn, Dude. The only one, right?"

  "It certainly appears that way." Ava shrugged her shoulders halfheartedly. "I asked my mom if she even knew when Dad died, but she still won't tell me anything." Ava let out an exasperated groan.

  "So lame," Michaela concurred. "I mean, that's your dad. You have a right to know."

  Zeke removed his headphones and opened his mouth to speak, which surprised Ava tremendously. Everybody was really talking to her now—this was alien to her. "My mother's human," Zeke said. "She never bothered to mention my dad was a mo’nuckin dragon shifter of all things until my mark showed up when I was fifteen."

  "Omigod, are you kidding me? That's brrrruuuutal." Michaela sounded out the last word as if she were revving up a motorboat.

  "Yeah, I guess she was just hoping it wouldn't pass down. Never did her research to find out that the father carries the shifter gene. It's pretty much always passed down." Zeke apparently decided he was done with the conversation and placed his bright green headphones back over his ears.

  Michaela looked like she was about to say something else, but she snapped her mouth shut when the boat started to rock.

  "Found her!" Paul exclaimed as he tossed a pink suitcase into the boat. He helped a short girl on behind him, leading her by the hand.

  "Ava?"

  Ava recognized that little voice with the English accent immediately. "Priya!"

  Priya pushed past Paul and ran to Ava, jumping into her arms in a tight hug.

  "Whoa Bro…" Michaela looked nervous as the boat rocked harder.

  "Not to worry," Paul sang out. "It's time to go anyway." And he pulled up the chain from the dock.

  As they departed, Ava turned her attention to her little friend whom she'd met on the main ship to Animage last year. But considering Priya's thick English accent, Ava had assumed the girl lived somewhere in the UK. "So what are you doing here in Miami?"

  "My daddy got transferred here because of his job. We've been here for about a month. I like it well enough, but oh my gosh, it's so hot!" Priya's face flashed with a look of utter disgust but immediately returned to her bright smile.

  "It definitely is," Ava agreed. "I can't believe you live here now. What a crazy coincidence."

  "Well, I haven't really had time to get used to it yet. And now I'm headed back to Australia already!" She let out a bark of laughter.

  "I never got to tell you, your performance in the finals last year was incredible," Ava gushed. "Those flying tricks you did while still mostly human? What the heck even was that? I can't believe how talented you are."

  Priya blushed. "My teacher says I have natural, raw talent, but I know it was because of all the time my dad spent training me."

  "So you're glad you came to the academy after all?" Ava asked her. When Ava had first met Priya, she was terrified to go to school away from home and missed her father terribly. Ava couldn't blame her; she probably would have felt the same way at ten years old.

  Priya bobbed her head up and down. "Oh yes, I'm glad I did! I made a lot of friends, and my teacher taught me to do all kinds of brilliant things I don't even think my daddy knew were possible. See, he's a canary shifter, too, so he couldn't get into Animage when he was younger, even though it was always his dream. He was so excited for me when I got my acceptance letter. I'm so glad I can make him proud." Priya beamed.

  "That's so great." Ava smiled sadly, once again thinking about her own father whom she would never have a chance to make proud.

  After about fifteen minutes sailing on the waters, Paul announced they had arrived at this year's portal.

  Ava, always curious, thought of something for the first time. "Hey, Paul, since you come with us through the portal, what happens to the boat after you jump out?"

  Paul laughed, and Ava thought she heard Michaela snicker quietly as well. What? How the heck was she supposed to know these things? It was a reasonable question as far as she was concerned.

  "The boat goes through the portal, too," Paul explained. "I stay in it until we get it into portal storage at a different stopover then, from there, I hop back into the portal to meet you at the transport station. Why else do you think it took me so long to get there after you?"

  "I see," Ava said, even though she sort of didn’t. Clearly, she should have figured all that out on her own, right? She rolled her eyes.

  They all made it through the portal and to the underwater transport station with little fuss.

  Ava wasn't nearly as nervous about throwing herself into the water portal this time. Once they were all safely assembled in the corridor where their Miami-branch portal dropped them, Paul soon dropped down next to them, pedaling his feet—as if walking on air—until he touched down gracefully.

  "Are you a butterfly shifter, Paul?" Priya asked him with a giggle. "It certainly looks that way from the way you just landed."