Panthera Spelaea
Switchers

All of us were shocked, but Svetlana recovered first. “Beautiful,” she said as she moved forward.

I grabbed her arm, not sure of the danger. Svetlana turned to me and whispered in my ear. “If she wanted to hurt us, she had her chance. She’s like you.” I released her, and she moved closer, reaching a fist out towards the eagle’s beak. It was just like you’d introduce yourself to a strange dog, and the eagle tilted her head and allowed her to touch its feathers. “So soft.”

That broke the ice, and Anna and I came over to touch the giant raptor. She shifted back, holding her finger over her lips to indicate we should stay quiet. She whispered into Svetlana’s ear to play music loudly, then pulled Anna and me towards the bathroom. “Bugging a bathroom is less common, but it can happen. Search for bugs while I run a bath.”

I found one under the sink and crushed it between my fingers, showing it to the others before tossing it in the trash. We didn’t locate more, and they wouldn’t have a chance to put more in before we left. The oversize jacuzzi was half-full when the bird-woman turned on the jets. “Take a shower and leave the water running, then join me in the tub,” she told us.

The girls shot me a look of jealousy, and I shrugged it off. “She’s right. It’s the best place to talk, and I’m not going to do anything with her.” Between the music playing on the phone in the other room, the water running, and the air pumps, it would be tough for bugs to pick up anything.

Our visitor and I got in the tub at opposite ends. Since Svetlana and Anna were pregnant, they sat on the edge with their legs in the water. We all leaned forward so she could talk. “My name is Ekatarina Federova. Thank you for talking to me.”

I had so many questions. “You’re like me, but how?”

“Tell me what you’ve learned about your lion, and then I’ll answer your questions.”

I quickly went through what happened on the boat, the changes to my body, and how I’d slowly learned to coexist, so I was aware of what happened when I shifted. Our time at the farm had been productive; my cat and I could exchange feelings and urges freely in either form, though my lion couldn’t form words. I could now shift between the two bodies at will, and heal quickly from wounds. I also talked about the changes I’d seen in the girls; their easy acceptance of our polyamorous relationship, sharper senses, and increased physical strength and endurance. “I don’t know how, but I can become the same lion I found frozen in the permafrost years ago.”

“You’ve learned a lot on your own, and that is good. We feared that your living in cities, or prison, would result in further exposure, even your death. We were lucky the damage was so limited.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sixteen dead and a lion caught on video is limited?”

“It could have been much worse. New Switchers are rare, and you were a big surprise. We had no idea a Cave Lion Switcher existed until we saw the video after the Moscow incident.”

Svetlana had caught something. “You said ‘we.’ There are more than you?”

“Yes. I am the only raptor Switcher. My eagle is bigger than the modern Golden Eagle, the extinct species Aquila Chrysaetos Simurgh.” I gasped; the species was known to me, though fossil records were scarce. I was a BIG bird, with a wingspan estimated at over nine feet. “There is a Cave Bear, a Dire Wolf, and the Scimitar Cat Switcher still alive.”

Jesus. I was familiar with all three species through my studies; all were extinct, and all (including the Cave Lion) were present during the Pleistocene era in the Siberian region. The Cave Bear was a larger version of today’s Brown Bear. The Dire Wolf was a stockier, more powerful version of today’s Gray Wolves. Finally, the Scimitar Cat was the size of a modern lion with distinctive upper canine teeth that rested outside the lower jaw. They were related to the Saber-Tooth Tiger, but those teeth were nowhere near the length of the more famous cat. The distinctive teeth were longer and wider than my cat’s canines, even though the cat was just over half the size of mine. “All of those animals died out at the end of the Pleistocene Era,” I said.

“Yes. The precise start of our kind is not known, but it had to have happened during that time. How? Who knows. Knowledge hasn’t passed through the millennia, but modern research has given us some clues.”

Anna had the next question. “You called his kind Switchers. Why?”

Ekatarina shrugged her shoulders. “It describes what happens, though we have no idea how. We switch instantly between two forms in a way that is not physically possible. John becomes a lion four times his size, while I become a bird a third of my weight. We have both minds inside us, human and animal, and we switch back and forth. Switchers.”

“He’s not a werecat?”

“There is a lot of fiction out there, some of it perhaps relating to people seeing our kind. Most of it is crap, with little related to our reality. We are not aware of any true werewolves or the like out there in the world. Also, our animals cannot be transmitted via bite or blood and do not pass to spouses or offspring. If you have children, they will be normal humans.”

“But we have changed too,” Svetlana said.

“We don’t know how, but close contact, especially sexual, seems to activate characteristics of the Switcher’s animal. They are not permanent; if John were to die, you’d see them decaying away over a year or so until they were gone.”

Anna looked crestfallen. “So we can’t be like him? No Lionesses with their Cubs crawling over them?”

Ekatarina shook her head, no. “Werewolf fiction often treats the cause like a virus, something that can spread. The Switch is more like demonic possession. The animal spirit enters your body, remaining there until you die, and then it seeks a new host.”

It took me a minute to make the connection. “We found the Cave Lion trapped under the mammoth. It could not pass anything on.” Oh, shit. “It passes between hosts by physical contact?”

“Yes. When you were the first to touch the animal with a bare hand, the ‘spirit’ of the Cave Lion entered you. Your mind resists at first, resulting in pain and blacking out while it takes control of the switched body. As you’ve found, you can eventually work out a sharing, allowing you to remain conscious and have some control in your animal form.”

“And when I die?”

“The first person to touch your dead body gets the Cave Lion, John. That is why I needed to talk to you. There are people in this world who know of our kind and are jealous of the power we have. They will do anything to get it from you, and they know they must kill you to get it.”

Things clicked into place like tumblers in a lock. “Senior Investigator Viktor Kaprisov. He’s been after me since I woke up in Moscow.”

Ekatarina nodded. “It might be him, or he might be working for someone who knows about our kind. If you hadn’t left the National Park earlier than planned, he might have come then. I’m sure the Police checking out your campsite was to make sure you were there and see who was around.”

“And if he kills me, he kills the girls too.” It would have been the perfect spot for him to kill us. It wasn’t just killing me; he had to plan for the Cave Lion to be in control for hours after it entered his body. I was in the hospital for over a week after the first switch. My Lion was furious at the threat to my Pride, and I had to push him back.

“Trust no one, and leave as soon as you can. When you are back home and settled, call this number. I will set up a meeting with the others.” She gave us the number, and the three of us memorized it. “I must go. If you are in here any longer, it may raise suspicions. Say nothing about me until you know no one is listening.”

We got out, drying off quietly. Ekatarina hopped onto the chair, then switched into her bird. She hopped up to the open window, pushed off, and flew away into the Moscow night.