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covering the sun’s light. I groped for him, blindly. “Ishan? Ishan?!”
    But there was the roar of the shotgun, the wizz of flying buckshot. The dream world disappeared and the real world replaced it.

Chapter IV

    Naked, Screaming and Covered in Blood

    A human is born into this world naked, screaming and covered in blood. They have no memory of what came before, and their eyes are open in a way that never comes again. Their mind is clear and fresh and accepting of new possibilities. They know nothing of anything and their brains are eager to be filled with knew knowledge, to learn, to expand, to grow.
    A Rakshasa is born the same way, more or less.
    I awoke in a vast open field, staring up at a twilight sky just beginning to fill with stars. The last vestigial rays of the sun’s warmth and light were tickling the highest of the clouds, painting them with faint strokes of red and gold. Grass, slick with bright red blood, clumped together below me. I felt cold, clammy, sticky.
    My mind felt clouded, fogged. Where was I?
    I struggled to sit but my body was weak, as though my limbs were made of lead. I struggled to see in the twilight. I could see I was naked, but unlike the dream I felt exposed. I felt vulnerable and weak and helpless. In a frenzy I wiped my hands off on the thick grass, trying to get the blood off.
    In the gloom I could see the tiger-stripe tattoo was back on my arms, stopping at the elbow, just as before. But now it didn’t give me confidence and power. I felt like a freak.
    I could hear footsteps. Panic began to fill me. I turned to see the approaching shadow of a person—tall and broad, their face obscured in the darkness.
    “W-…who are you? Where am I?”
    “Don’t worry,” came Ishan’s voice, “I’m here.”
    Relief. “Ishan? What’s going on?”
    He crouched beside me, taking my bloody hands in his. He was wearing a collared shirt and stone washed jeans, which seemed odd. I had gotten so used to seeing him naked. “It’s okay,” he answered, “you’ve undergone your first shift. I doubt you remember much, but it’s okay. That’s normal. Just try to relax.”
    “There’s blood, Ishan. What happened?” I squinted, trying to see him. “I don’t have my glasses.”
    He smiled, leaning in close enough for me to see, his handsome features softened by the lack of light. “Pretty soon you won’t need them anymore as you eyes adjust. Already your body will be beginning to strengthen; at first you’ll feel weaker, but that’s just because you’ve been running. Soon you’ll be stronger. Stronger than any other human.”
    He placed his hand in mine and I used him to stand, leaning against his chest, my breath exhaling in a soft white cloud. I remembered I was naked and suddenly was made acutely aware of how cold Canberra nights could get. I shivered against Ishan, pressing against him for warmth, but almost instantly I felt a warm blanket being draped around my shoulders.
    “I brought this,” Ishan explained, “after my own first time. I had to walk back and I nearly froze. I brought some shoes too. Trust me, you'll need them, the ground is as cold as ice at night."
    I shuffled under the blanket, pressing up to Ishan’s chest, breathing in his real scent for the first time. It was just like in my dream, but the world was dark and the lurid technicolour was gone. That and the blood.
    The real world was never as good as the world we imagined.
    “Nobody met you after your first time?” I asked.
    He smiled, rubbing my back through the blanket. “No,” he answered, “I wasn’t bonded to anyone, so nobody knew.” He gave a wry smile. “At least you transformed in the night, instead of in the middle of the day.”
    “Why?”
    “Humans… don’t take well to seeing our kind. It’s much easier this way, believe me.”
    I shivered against him, trying to warm myself. I wiggled my feet into the shoes, wearing them without any socks, which was how I usually wore them anyway.