A girl lies on her bed, dreaming of places she reads in her books. Then an alarm went off. She wakes with a sad expression on her pale face. She didn't like leaving the warmth of her bed, and she hated leaving her dreams of what the outside world looked like.

When she's unwrapped from her blankets, her eves still adjusting to the light, she gets ready for another day of experiments and tests.

When she gets ready, she thinks of what life would be like if she was normal, for she was anything but. Her ears were blue and they have points at the top. Her eyes are like a cat's, but different at the same time. The more her pupils expand, the more they look like a green forest. When they look like slits, they're a sun like yellow. Fangs, sharp as daggers, hide her pointed tongue. Her arms and legs were blue, claws as nails, and only three toes. There were two spikes, looking like they're made of iron, just below two little bat like wings on her back. But the most noticeable difference is the four foot tail that comes out of the base of her spine. Five spikes at the tip, one at the base of her spine.

She finished changing into her uniform, which wasn't much. The shirt was a light brown, and just below her belly button, sleeves that only covered her shoulders each had four letters, "P-A-R-A," Her pants weren't much either. Light brown with a hole for her tail. The edges of her pants and shirt were shredded.

She turns her head to her vast collection of books. Organized by fiction, nonfiction, and to be determined, but since she didn't know the differences between fiction and nonfiction, she organized it by what she thought was what.

She looked in her nonfiction section to pick out her favorite book, 'Beauty and the Beast.' It was her favorite because it talked about a horrible monster being able to find love in a beautiful lady. She wonders if her life can be like that.

She hoped she could read part of chapter one again before the test, but, as if the world was against her, just as she opened the book, she could hear footsteps coming from down the hall. They weren't loud; she just had really good hearing.

She closed the book and put it back on the shelf. She stood in front of the door, waiting for them to unlock it and take her to do more tests on her.

When the door opened, two different scents hit her nose. One was new because it was his first day on the job. The other was all too familiar to her. It was Glen.

Glen was the oldest, most well trained guard. He loved picking on the experiments, especially the one in front of him. If she ever stepped out of line, she would get a nasty blow to the head with his gun.

"Come on lizard, time to go back to hell." After hearing that, she felt murderous, but she tried to hide it.

She only knew Glen by voice, scent, and actions. She doesn't know his face because all the guards wear helmets.

The three walked down the hall to the torture room. When they entered the room, there were four men in white coats and a cart full of objects and other devices she did not bother to understand.

The guards led her to a chair next to the other four men. She sat in the chair, asking herself the questions she knew they were going to ask.

"Good day Para, how are you today?" The answer was just a shrug of her pale fade to blue shoulders.

The man didn't bother finding out if that was a yes or no. "So, anything special, like the ability to fly or some nonhuman instincts?" She shook her head. "I see you feel like being a mute today."

"That's because I don't like to talk to the people that put needles in my arms and legs, hoping I might start acting like a wild animal." Para said crossing her arms, leaning back on the chair, thinking bloody thoughts that no one should hear about.

The man nod to another that was near the cart, which grabbed a needle and handed it over.

The first man put the needle in her arm, all the way to the bone. Once it pierced the bone, Para let out a scream so unreal, that it sounded like an echo of some odd creature.

After injecting the odd crimson liquid into Para, the man pulled the needle out, grabbed a clipboard with paper on it, and wrote down if there was any progress, which there wasn't.

After half a minute, Para felt normal, at least as normal as she can be.

The first test started. See if she could fly with her little bat wings. Then strength, agility, speed, and a bunch of other test she would love to forget.

When the tests were finished, Para was escorted back to her room. On the way, she felt a random pain in her tail. She turns to see none other than, Glen.

Para raised her right, clawed hand, aiming for Glen's chest when she felt pain all over.

She fell to the floor, half asleep from the pain. She knew it was the newbie because he had the electrical rod in her face, shaking.

The next thing she knew, she was being dragged by her tail to her room. On the way, she fell into unconsciousness.

Para woke on her bed, in her room. She went to the book shelf, pick out a book, and started reading.

She was reading chapter seven when she heard footsteps coming from the hall. 'Must be my lunch.' She stalked up to the door, oddly enough, on all fours. She sat in front of the door, waiting.

When the door opened, something surprised her, two some things matter of fact. Para noticed her lunch, but what surprised her was that her dad was holding it, the same dad that turned her into an experiment. Her dad held a chain in his left hand, what was on the other end, she didn't know, her sense couldn't get past the lunch in her dad's right hand.

"Here's your lunch Para," he put the tray of food on the floor, for Para to eat. "I also brought you a friend." He pulled the chain, and a strange creature was on the end of it.

The creature before Para looked like what she thought was a wolf, but with some differences. It had a long furry mane, long fur on its elbows, and its tail. The long fur had blood red roots that fade to pitch black. The rest of the fur was an ashy gray. The ears were odd too. They were in the shape of a bent triangle, and it looked as if there was no ear hole. The snout looked twice as long as a wolf's, but the eyes were nothing but White pools.

The wolf thing had a metal collar that was attached to the chain. It also had a muzzle on to make sure it didn't bite anyone on the way there. When Para looked into the creatures eyes, even though they were pure white, she saw sadness and loneliness. She wanted to help this creature.

"This is a shagle. It's a new experiment, and since we're running out of room, it will be staying with you till we can find a place to put it." Para's dad throws the chain and the shagle went inside, with its tail in between its legs.

Para thought the shagle would be more comfortable without the collar and muzzle, so she reached behind its head to undo the muzzle. Once the muzzle was off, the shagle opened its mouth, to get use to not having a muzzle on. The shagle smiled, as if were human, and licked Para's cheek.

Next was the collar, which needed a key to unlock, so that didn't help at all. Instead of picking the lock with her claws, because she didn't know how, she just used brute force. From the experiments and tests, she was stronger than the average human. She broke the collar in two.

Almost at once, the shagle put its head on Para's lap. At first Para was surprised, but after a brief moment she started petting it.

"Well, I guess I have to name you that is if we're roommates now. Now, are you a boy or a girl?" The shagle just wagged its tail, and started to make an odd noise from its chest. "Are you a boy?" It just growled at the question. "Are you a girl?" It started making that odd noise again from its chest. "I'll take that as a yes. Now lets a name." Para started thinking of a name for this creature.

"How about I name you Fluffy?" The female shagle growled. 'So, a growl means no, an odd noise means yes.' "Do you like Violet?" The shagle just growled. "Well, I'll think of a name some other time, I'm still tired from today."

After Para finished her lunch, she gave the leftovers to the shagle and went to her bed. She noticed the shagle followed, but tried to stay in Para's shadow. "How about I name you Shadow?" The shagle started making that odd noise. "Okay, Shadow it is. Now let's get to bed."

Para got into bed, Shadow following. Once Para was under her covers, Shadow put her head next to Para's belly and started make that odd noise. The noise made Para feel less alone, a she liked it that way. 'I'll always be with you Shadow.'