Page 38 of Partridge in a Bear Tree

I can do that!the bird yelled in Penny's head.Let's show her!

"A—like Bill?" Gwen whispered, stunned.

Not like Bill! Like a bird! I can do that! Let's show her!

Oh look,Penny said inside her head,Wonder Woman's jet is right over there. Go admire it.

The partridge, to her huge relief, ran off in search of the jet. Maybe that would keep it busy for a while. "Not exactly like Bill," Penny admitted in a mumble. "I turn into a partridge."

"A p—" Gwen stopped on the popping sound of thepand swallowed. "Like your last name?"

"A horrible irony," Penny muttered. "I talked to some other shifters earlier today and they said I probably suppressed the ability for my own safety, because no one around me was one. Apparently it happens sometimes. Not often. They said it takes a huge amount of willpower."

Gwen's eyebrows rose. "Well, that describes you if it describes anybody I know."

The jet is gone! What's a jet? Where did it go?

A jet is a thing that flies through the air like a bird,Penny replied.It's around here somewhere. Go look.

The partridge ran off again, now with a vague bird-like image in its mind. Penny very carefully didn't think about how Wonder Woman's jet was, in fact, invisible and therefore impossible to find. Gwen put her hands out across the table, and Penny sank hers into them, grateful for the connection. "So I wanted to tell you. I wanted to tell you…"

Bill was squinting at her. "How did you figure it out, at this late stage? Did you shift for some reason?"

Penny gave him a nervous smile. "Well, see, Ashley showed me her bear?—"

I CAN DO THAT!

Penny struggled not to let the wretched partridge shift in the middle of the cafe, blurting, "and my partridge thought 'I can do that,' and then it did, and everything's been kind of insane since."

Icando that! Let me show them! You can do that! We can do it! Bees do it! Bears do it! Let's do it! We'll fall in love!

Penny, helplessly, whispered,Those aren't even the right lyrics,and the partridge gazed at her in bewilderment.

What's a lyric?

Bill's face lit up. "There's only one reason I know that shifters usually tell true humans—or people we think are true humans—about our animals. Penny, is Ashley your mate?"

Gwen rolled her eyes so hard Penny was surprised they didn't plop out of her head and land on the table. "Yourtrue love," she muttered, although it was obviously meant affectionately. "I'm sorry, I just cannot take this 'mate' thing seriously. But does that mean sheisyour true love?"

Where? Where's our true love? Our mate should be watching the eggs. Sitting on them. Oh no, where are the chicks?The partridge gasped.Maybe they're in the jet. The jet flies like a bird. Maybe it lays eggs. Partridge eggs!It tore off looking for the jet again.

Penny clutched her head and nodded, trying both to be happy and to cope with the bird in her brain. "She is and it's wonderful and I'm thrilled but oh mygod, guys, I don't think I suppressed my shifter abilities for safety. Or at least, not because I was afraid someone would find me out. I think I suppressed them because this bird is asdumb as a box of rocks, and if I let it loose in public it would walk out into traffic and get us both killed."

IS THE JET IN TRAFFIC? WITH THE CHICKS? WHAT'S TRAFFIC?

"Oh." Bill's eyes widened enormously. "Oh dear. That bad? I know non-predator shifter species can be…" He hesitated. "Flighty."

I can fly!!!The partridge ran like hell across the landscape of Penny's mine, launched itself into the air, and flapped along forseveral feet, just above the ground, before landing in a rolling thump.Oooh, maybe the eggs are here!

Penny gave a hollow laugh and described the bird's antics while Gwen sucked her cheeks in and tried hard not to laugh. "We've got to go somewhere that you can show me," she whispered. "Oh my God, Pen, this is amazing."

"Actually, that's a pretty good idea," Bill said. "Usually shifters get all this out of their systems before they can even remember, but since you came to it so late, you might just need to spend a while shifting back and forth a lot and letting the partridge run around."

"Are you telling me that because I've started shifting so late, I've got a bird too young to understand object permanence?"

Bill's eyes sparkled. "Yeah, maybe. I think you and Gwen should go out to—oh, I know. Uncle Jeff and Aunt Holly. They live up in the mountains. You can shift there without anybody seeing you. Ashley will bring you up."

"Ashley is insanely busy with work for the next seventy-two hours," Penny objected.

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