Chameleon (Book 1)

By Pepi Spence

There are species living among us in this world that are not human. 22-year-old Clare Emmerson is one of them. Forced to run from brutal authorities who desperately want and will do anything to acquire her kind’s miraculous healing secrets for themselves, Clare's life is in serious danger and she is left fighting for her survival at all costs. Moving homes frequently to evade capture, ‘Chameleons’ like Clare have now been hunted to the brink of extinction by human-kind and Clare is one of the precious last few remaining in existence. When her family is ambushed and murdered by an incredibly clandestine human government organisation, Clare is forced to run for her life once more... into the jungles of Madagascar and beyond. Befriended by the enigmatic and deeply intriguing ex CIA agent Aries Walker, the man who risks everything to rescue Clare, when she is literally facing death's door. Clare and Aries are now running for their lives together and trying to save the last of her species along the way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pepi Spence
• Release date: May 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9781921968969

Pepi Spence

Pepi started drawing a sketch of a Chameleon one day and wondered what it would be like if a person had Chameleon like abilities. This notion sparked the concept for her novel 'Chameleon'Pepi is an Australian author who takes her inspiration from a collaboration of artistic sources and personal experiences.Books, art and music have always been a great source of comfort and inspiration to Pepi from childhood and throughout her adult life.Chameleon was initially written in a country farm house located in Bridgetown Western Australia. The idea for the book came to Pepi while she was sitting by a fire place on cold winters night. She simply started writing and found she could not stop. Originally hand written in a leather journal and then several others thereafter, Chameleon soon became a published novel.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

Our kind

When I was a small child, I lived in the bubble of my perfect childhood, blissfully unaware of what was to become of my life and the complications that I was always destined to face. I often look back to that time fondly and wish with all of my heart that my life was so simple once again...

According to our history books, twenty-six million years ago the first of our kind was born. We evolved long before Humans even existed, and have mostly and miraculously managed to survive undetected by them, during all of that time.

Through the inexplicable wonders of nature’s science, we were born into this world and just like the first known Humans and other species were created, we are simply a divine miracle of science.

As Humans are to each other, we are also completely unique to one another and vary in size, body structure and temperament. Our one, and only, similarity to Humans is that we physically appear in the same form as them and appearance-wise, we are identical to them. We walk and talk exactly like Humans do and, if you didn’t know any better, you would think we were one of them... but in reality this is where our biological similarities cease.

Our kind, the ‘Chameleons’ have specialised cells called chromatophones which contain pigments in the cytoplasms that are found in the three layers below our transparent outer skin. The chromatophones allow us to camouflage and change colour if and when we desire to. Our camouflage is one of our many natural gifts and it helps us to become invisible, which can be very useful to us at times.

Even though changing our colours so that we can disappear into our surroundings comes naturally to us, it is also a skill that takes many years of practice to master properly.

For example, when I was younger I was only strong enough to become invisible for short periods of time and I didn’t think that I would ever be able to camouflage for longer... but, just as my grandmother promised me, all of my hard work and persistence has paid off.

Now that I am older, stronger and so much more experienced, I can hide cars, buildings and various other objects that I decide to focus on. This means that I can virtually blend into anything regardless of its size and make it completely invisible. I am able to do this simply by touching the item I wish to camouflage with and blending myself in with it.

My capability to camouflage doesn’t come naturally though, like walking or crawling would to a Human, and it took me years of practice to master it at a high standard. My kind’s superb ability does not come easily. Each of us has worked hard, by dedicating years of our lives to training, in order to learn how to make the best possible use of nature’s gifts to us.

I have personally been extremely fortunate. I was well educated and trained from a young age by my grandparents who are both highly skilled Chameleons. I consider myself very privileged and I am eternally grateful to have spent my entire life listening to the best advice imaginable from the strongest and most amazing Chameleons I know in this world, humbly known as my ‘Nan and Pop’.

Not all Chameleons have the capability of hiding objects such as cars, let alone buildings as I do. Fortunately for my kind though, every Chameleon, including myself, has the ability to self-camouflage through our skin. We are capable of changing our skins’ appearance to any colour of the rainbow, which tends to occur especially if there is a change to our temperament. For example, when we are happy or in love our skin colour is lighter. If we are angry, or scared, our skin colour appears darker.

Our colour range is so diverse and colourful that, if Humans were ever to catch sight of us changing colours, it would cause absolute mayhem. I guess this is why nature has provided us with such an immense amount of control over our camouflaging and coloration abilities.

The large range of colours available to my kind, combined with our controlled emotions, enables us to change our skin colour dramatically from second to second; from pink to aqua, aqua to orange, orange to purple, purple to yellow to... well you get the idea. We can even change our skin colour to a rainbow of colours simultaneously, in other words we Chameleons, have complete control over every single cell in our bodies. This allows us to camouflage ourselves against anything in the world and it means we can also mirror the exact image of any Human being in the world... I will explain more about that to you later...

Can you imagine seeing a Chameleon like me casually walking down the street with his or her skin a bright aqua colour? The very sight of one of us showing our colours would most certainly generate worldwide chaos. If our secret was ever exposed, we Chameleons would be booked straight into a Government science laboratory and our lives would no longer be worth living.

If my family and I were ever discovered we would all be doomed to live the remainder of our lives as science experiments. I know that this is precisely what would happen to my family if we were captured, as it already has to so many of my kind already who have been caught. When I was younger, I sadly witnessed, first-hand, exactly what became of some of the Chameleons that were captured by Humans and for this reason I know how it is imperative that all Chameleons, including my family and I, always remain in control. It also makes us all aware why we can never allow Humans to see us for what we truly are...

Living our lives on the run from those who hunt us relentlessly and constantly having to hide our identity, is of course not the way Chameleons want to live. Sadly for us though, our differences to Humans and their desire to capture and harm us, is precisely the reason why our kind are always so extremely focused on looking as Human as possible and why we are always so intensely aware of our emotions. If we want to survive it simply has to be this way, we have no other choice.

I guess it explains why every Chameleon in the world is well aware, exactly why we must always appear as Human as possible, unless it is completely safe to appear as ourselves. The only way that any of us can even contemplate revealing our natural range of skin colours, is if we are in an extremely private home or a remote part of the world where there is no possibility of a Human catching sight of us.

Our personal safety and desire for survival is the reason why it is integral that all Chameleons remember and follow rule number one. It is also the reason why we can never allow the Humans to see us for what we truly are...

RULE NUMBER 1

We must always remain in control

My grandmother taught me to always remain in control, because if I am in control of myself, then I can control the environment and the location that I am in. The slightest change in my emotions could instantly change my skin colour. As I mentioned before, this means that if I don’t take care, my entire body could suddenly turn bright pink, green, blue, yellow, purple or various other colours. So as I am sure you can appreciate, it would be disastrous and dangerous for me if my skins appearance ever revealed any of those inhuman colours, when it should be a one of the normal shades of a Human skin tone. Keeping our secret is something we must always be constantly aware of and although maintaining and monitoring the colour of our skin tone is very important, it is certainly not the only part of our body we need to keep under control...

There are cameras everywhere in the world now and with all of the technology around, it has really made survival a challenge for all Chameleons, so we have to be extremely cautious not to show our any of our differences to Humans. As you can imagine, the last thing our kind wants, is to be locked up like lab rats and held prisoner like ‘freaks’... who would?

As, I started to explain earlier, becoming invisible isn’t the only gift our kind was born with and is definitely not the only physical attribute that we have to hide and keep under control. For example when you look into my eyes, they will look exactly like a pair of Human eyes to you, but this is only because I choose to camouflage them and mask their true appearance. In reality, apart from their appearance, my eyes look and function very differently to Human eyes. You see, all Chameleons are born with rainbow-coloured eyes; however we instinctively camouflage them constantly, so that our eyes appear as Human as possible. It is one of our many natural inbuilt defence mechanisms, cleverly designed by nature, in order to protect us from our biggest predators (Humans). This is the reason why I am always able to ensure that my eyes never appear as their natural rainbow colour, unless it is completely safe for me to do so, just like every other Chameleon in the world is able to and does.

I can also change my eyes to any colour I desire and it’s definitely a cool ability to have because I basically have my own natural set of built in coloured eye contacts, which I can change instantly from colour to colour when required. The only difference between a Human’s pair of coloured contacts and my eyes is... mine are real and I can change them to whatever colour I desire when I wish, naturally and independently.

I generally prefer to keep my eyes blue, but sometimes I like them to be a pretty shade of green or various other colours when I feel like a change, however, I normally only ever alter my eye colour when my family moves towns to start fresh again... to avoid Human interest and confusion. For this reason I don’t tend to modify my eye colour very often, because if I did, it would be a clear indication to Humans that there is something different about me.

Everyone knows that a Human’s eye colour doesn’t just suddenly change on a daily or weekly basis or ever for that matter and that it’s just not normal to have green eyes one day and purple the next. The only time Human eye colour does generally change is during infancy when your eyes are still developing, or if they wear coloured contacts. Most people are also well aware that eye colours generally tend to remain the same, so as you can imagine if I was to change my eye colour frequently, that would ultimately give me away or spark unwanted questions. This is one of the many reasons why I always have to remain as Human as possible, otherwise people would know that there is something different about me and that is the last thing I want happening.

Another special and handy feature of our Chameleon eyes is they can rotate and focus independently of each other. That means we can focus separately on two independently moving objects at any time, we can even see objects which are behind us perfectly as our eyesight is highly effective and has a 360-degree range. Putting it mildly, we have extremely good vision and our eyesight is impeccable.

Nature has also provided us with many other remarkable gifts, like our adaptability to survive varying climates. From snowy mountains to searing desert temperatures we always remain unaffected by the elements, we are essentially immune to bad weather. That does not mean we can’t feel the warmth of a Humans touch or the coolness of an ice cube on our tongue, we can still feel the sensation of temperature, yet we are not affected by it.

Then there’s our tongues. Nature humorously gifted us with our super cool tongues. Again, you would look at my tongue and not see a difference to yours; however it’s only another one of nature’s clever disguises, because a Chameleon tongue works very differently to a Human tongue. For example, Chameleon tongues are the same length of our body, are extremely powerful and are capable of extending at about 26 body lengths per second. This means that Chameleon’s tongues are well equipped to hit prey in about one-thirtieth of a second, so fast that it’s completely unnoticeable to the Human eye.

Even though my tongue is extremely long, I always present my tongue as a Human tongue and always keep it rolled up inside my body, hidden to the Human eye and out of the way unless I really need to use it. If I had to kiss someone for example, I wouldn’t just roll out my body length tongue and kiss them with my giant tongue, I can kiss people and eat food exactly the same way a Human being does. The super long part of my tongue is always kept well out of view and out of my way, unless I need to use it in an emergency.

My feet are also a fantastic feature, because they have these funky, little sticky pads underneath them, that I can pop out when I need to climb. I can also run up the trunk of a tree, hang upside down from a branch and then detach when required, as my Chameleon feet are capable of sticking to almost anything. I love running up buildings more than trees though, it’s a wonderful feeling to run up a building and sit on the edge of it. I just love watching the tiny world crawling away like tiny ants below me... sounds like fun hey?

Until the technical age, Chameleons had always lived a peaceful existence undetected by Humans. We can camouflage, we have exceptional eyesight, we can climb almost anything anywhere and we are stronger and faster than any other creature in the world including Humans. When required, we can defend ourselves with our extendable tongue and use it to attack predators so that we can escape; we are ultimately the most powerful creatures in the world. We all have varying special gifts and although we are all born with the same features, each of us is gifted with a unique skill, for example I have a special healing ability that allows me to heal people.

Our gifts seem to intrigue Humans like you, so much so that the Governments around the world are completely captivated by our skills and power. They want to possess our powers and they will do anything to acquire them. This is why it is important for us to understand and follow rule number one. It is equally vital that we also follow rule number two, and this is becoming increasingly harder to do.

RULE NUMBER 2

We must always remain calm

I have always been consistently calm by nature, so calm, that I would go so far as to correct myself and say that I have remained consistently and extremely calm my entire life. Even when I was a new born baby, my temperament was constantly placid and calm, I naturally possessed an incredibly strong grasp of self-control when it came to my calm nature. I never cried or got grumpy during my infancy. Never had a temper tantrum during toddlerhood and never slammed a door and lost the plot at my parents as a teenager. I guess you could compare my calm nature to that of a monk, a Buddhist priest or even the Dalai Lama himself. My ability to control my temperament so well, keeps me calm and in control which helps shield me from revealing my true self, this ability is one Mother Nature’s gifts to not only myself, but to all Chameleons. Fortunately for my kind, every last one of us knows precisely how to remain calm, even in the greatest moment of chaos and we are all conditioned this way...

If Mother Nature hadn’t catered for my kind with this precious gift of self-control, there would be Chameleons all over the world revealing their rainbow of natural skin colours to Humans and our entire species would be exposed. This is why we are all peaceful and placid in our nature.

So as you can see, once again Mother Nature has provided us another defence mechanism. We are so lucky to possess the key to staying in complete control of our emotions, because it means that we can always regulate and control our camouflage, which is an extremely important ability for us to have. It can mean the difference between us living or dying.

Our two closest relations are Humans and chameleon lizards; we are however, a unique species of our own. Our kind is definitely not a crossbreed of either species (now that would be a worry if we were). We appear in Human form and bare no noticeable resemblance to chameleon lizards, apart from our camouflaging and colour changing abilities, which are not visibly noticeable, unless we choose them to be.

Chameleons live and work in the same society as you Humans do, our doctors and dentists treat you and our teachers teach your Human children. We are everywhere, global in fact, working in various other occupations, yet people never notice us because we are highly skilled at remaining undetected. When we do need to hide, our camouflage is definitely the greatest asset out of all of our skills.

Now, for the first time in twenty-six million years, we are faced with a major concern for our personal safety and our lives have changed dramatically. Chameleons are all living in fear and terror. Every Chameleon in the world is terrified for their lives. This is because we have all been forced to go into hiding and live our lives on the run.

Over the past twenty years, several top-secret Government groups have become aware of our existence and our unique abilities, and as a result, we have lots of Humans hunting us. The Chameleons that have encountered these people and managed to escape, told my family... that the Humans want to capture us for their experiments and eventually eradicate my species. I have been informed by reliable sources that they will try to kill us all once they have unlocked all of our biological secrets... one by one if they have to.

From what my Pop and other Chameleons have told me, the Government of this country, and other Governments around the world, are in control of several top-secret facilities globally and they are desperate to learn everything they can about our kind. Apparently they have their best scientists and researchers all around the world in a desperate race against one another, to be the first to unlock the secrets of our gifted DNA.

We may be the gentlest creatures on earth by nature; however, our abilities also make us the world’s greatest weapons. This is why Chameleons are so highly desired and competed for by the world’s leaders. When you are considered to be the world’s greatest weapon, you are also the world’s greatest assets and this is why we Chameleons are extremely desired and hunted.

The world leaders are all competing to acquire us and we are the grand prizes. Being the world’s greatest weapon is dangerous for Chameleons, especially considering every last one of the world’s leaders would do anything to acquire our power.

Chameleons may be powerful and have the most amazing combination of abilities and senses; however our only desire is to live in harmony, peace and to survive. We are not interested in harming Humans and we don’t want to be in control of the world; unlike Humans war is not an option for us. My kind only seeks peace, harmony and love at all costs.

That is the world we want to live in, a world that unites together as one. Chameleons feel that it is very important to uphold and abide by the importance of those three simple, yet powerful words... Peace... Love… and Harmony. We will always seek peace, harmony and love at all costs, regardless, of the race, species, colour, sexual orientation and difference of others.

For us the equation is simple mathematics, just like one plus one to my kind... ‘Peace love and harmony’ equals a perfect world; if only life was that simple. Chameleons would love to see a world in which global acceptance exists. It shouldn’t matter what colour you are, or if you’re gay, if you’re rich or poor, religious or non-religious or what country you come from. Every person in the world is of equal value and importance and everyone should just love and accept each other unconditionally.

Violence shouldn’t exist, because every Human in this world was born the same, they were all sweet innocent little babies once and every living creature in this world, every life, is equally beautiful and precious. When you find yourself hating someone all you have to do is envision them as a tiny little precious baby, a baby that has a family who loves it dearly and any hatred you feel for another Human being, should cease and leave your body immediately... if you have any sense of Humanity. Chameleons want global love peace and happiness desperately, we don’t just want this for our own species we want it for every Human in this world.

All Chameleons strive for peace; it is all we truly desire. While we strive for peace, the world’s Human leaders are racing against each other... racing to destroy us. They all want to unlock the secrets of our powers. The winner of that race will be the proud owner of the key to the world. The Government or key holder could easily create the worlds, most powerful army with the secrets to our power and control anything they desire.

They could heal the entire world with my power... no one would ever be sick again. The question is will their prize be worth it? Chameleons are all afraid, as our experiences have taught us the Humans will never stop hunting us.

Over the past few years, a great number of Chameleons were captured, they were tortured, subjected to cruel experiments and all types of atrocities towards them were committed. From what my Pop has told me, the Chameleons that were caught were experimented on and kept in appalling conditions until they finally died. The notion honestly terrifies me and I can’t help but quiver when I think of it.

For this reason, our family moves regularly and we stay together in small groups, even though I am twenty-two years of age and old enough to be living my life as an adult and be independently making my own choices. I would love to be able to explore the world and live a carefree life like most twenty-two years olds who seek adventure, but it far too dangerous for me to do so. My family and I stay together always, because there is more safety in numbers. Our living arrangement works well, because I couldn’t imagine my life without my family anyway, we are all extremely close and love each other dearly. I don’t think I would ever want to live away from my family, even if I had the option.

Every time I get settled and start making new friends my family moves again and it is not as easy as you would think it is to move so frequently. We are forced to do so for safety reasons, however it still doesn’t make it any easier on us. This is what we have to do, if we want to keep living, we move for our survival... not because we desire to. I often feel as though I don’t really belong anywhere, just like a chess piece on a giant game board, always placed in a strategic location and always waiting for my opponent to take me out unexpectedly.

My greatest wish is to have a home, a permanent and real home where I can belong... somewhere wonderful, where I can live forever in peace and happiness.

Today is moving day and I am leaving my friends behind, my neighbours, and my community. I have often wondered if they would really be my friends, my neighbours, and my community though if they honestly knew who I am? Or what I am?

I have always been too scared to find out... luckily for me I don’t have to, because it is just too dangerous tell them the truth about me anyway.

I have managed to maintain our family secret, even from those Humans who are closest to me. Yes, it’s true that against all odds, I have made friends with Humans and I have learnt that there are lots of good and kind people in the world. Even though there are other Humans who relentlessly hunt and kill my species... I don’t consider all Humans to be my enemies. I am well aware that there are lots of decent and good Humans in the world and it is of great comfort to me to know that there are so many. The authorities recently captured my father and my mother has been an absolute wreck ever since that fateful day, yet she is still desperate to believe that he will escape and find his way back to us one day.

I don’t believe I will ever see my darling father again. However, I have been extremely careful not to share my thoughts on this with my mother, because I don’t want to take her hope away from her. Not when I know how much she loves him. Now we are running away again, fearing for our lives, as we have done so many times before.

We are ‘just moving’ as Mum calls our constant transitional state, in reality though... we are running. Mum and I are always running and I am completely fed up with ‘running’ as I have done it my entire life... I am just so tired of it. The thing is though... I have to run, if I want to live, I do it out of necessity not desire. My mother and I run in search of a place to call home (a place that we can call home, for a short time at least), all we seek is a peaceful life.

Lately my mother and I have noticed that our friends, our community and our neighbours are growing suspicious of us. That is what has spurred us on to move once again and we have both agreed that my mother is right... it is time for us to move.

Especially with my father missing, so many questions about his absence have been asked. How can we answer them all? How can we ever explain his disappearance? We cant!

As much as I detest having to admit it, I know my Mum is right, we have to move again, and so we say our teary goodbyes to all of our friends and drive away in our baby blue beetle. I look over my shoulder and wave to my three best Human friends; Grace, Bella and Izzy, as I wipe away my overflowing tears and watch them jumping up and down, waving at me madly and blowing farewell kisses to me into the air. Our new home is a long drive from the city, so I settle into my seat for a long journey, as my Mum drives us away from my friends into the dark, freezing cold night. Not that I can even really feel the cold. I can see it though. It’s only evidence fogs up our windows until Mum turns the air-conditioner on to defrost it.

Mum takes the liberty of choosing some music for our road trip and pushes an old tape of Abba into her prehistoric tape deck. Her taste in music is a far cry from mine, so it is not long before I decide to save myself from the agony of listening to Abba and I stick my headphones into my ears.

I try my best to blast away any remnant of sound from her poor old Abba tape, as it is just too much for my ears to Bear. Thank god for my iPod, it’s saved me once again. I drift off into a long slumber listing to my music, until I am awakened by the familiar sound of gravel and a bumpy old road that sounds like home. As Mum drives along the dusty old road each pothole we hit, bumps us around a fair bit, as road works have never been a big priority where we are. To my great delight, I can see hundreds of tiny lights and chimneys bellowing out smoke all across the valley as we drive closer to home. Even the shroud of darkness can’t conceal this wonderful and comforting sight.

I wipe our foggy windows and instantly see millions of stars shining down on us, another familiar comfort of home; they just look so much brighter and more beautiful in the country. We zig-zag our way down the winding hill and then make our way up another, as we reach its peak, we descend down the road once again until we are even further into the valley. The road seems to guide our path for us in a familiar way, perhaps this is because I know every twist and turn towards the quaint remote country town I was born in. The closer we get, the prettier it looks, even though it is night-time. The lights are all around us now, a tell tail sigh that we are very close to town and not far from our final destination.

I wind down my window so that I can hear the familiar sound of the local cows moo, as I do a couple of kangaroos casually make their way across the road in unison, directly in front of us as they bound across the road.

I alert Mum to their presence but she has already seen them and slowed down, allowing the jumping duo to cross safely. The golden rule with kangaroos on the road is once you have seen one cross, another is generally likely to follow and it pays to be wary.

It is always wise to decrease your speed when you see a kangaroo and be cautious not to hit them. They may be big beautiful animals to admire, however they all lack road-crossing skills and it can be disastrous for all concerned... if you hit one of them.

Once the kangaroos safely cross the road, I focus back to the sounds of home and instead of hearing the sound of the local cows, as I had predicted I would hear, I hear an even better sound... the collaborative sound of hooves galloping and the gravel spinning under our wheels. My grandparent’s horses have heard our car approaching and are running along the perimeter of their paddock fence to see what is going on, or perhaps to greet us... either way, they are nosy and inquisitive creatures. Horses are very similar to us Chameleons in many ways; they are creatures of flight and are always aware of their surroundings... always ready to run from potential threats and predators.

We finally drive into the entrance of the property, a long steep gravel driveway, which is surrounded by the most glorious forest and as my window is down, I instantly catch a whiff of its pleasant scent.

We’re here! Mum seems to yell at me, as she pulls one of my headphones out of my ear.

I yawn and stretch before I swing my door open and make my way to the house. The moist night air is filled with the unmistakable fragrance of the bush and it’s pleasing to smell the delightful scent of eucalyptus.

The smell is overwhelmingly beautiful and there’s nothing else like it, it’s the best natural perfume in the entire world... and it’s the smell of my home. The refreshing aroma gives a whole new meaning to fresh air. It makes me think back to the past year that I spent living in the city; the city air was just so putrid and vial to inhale because it’s so intoxicated with pollution. The city air was that my mother and I had to breath in on a daily basis had been so dirty and yellow, that it was visible to the eye and saddening for us both to see.

The filthy air is what city people breathe in daily and they don’t know any different unless they are fortunate enough to leave the city and take a breath of the real stuff. It’s only then that they realise there’s a whole new meaning to fresh, clean, quality air. Fresh air that is wonderful and divine. I’m tired of moving... so tired. Still though, this move was worth it as far as I’m concerned, just so that I can once again experience fresh and clean air. I’m actually kind of relieved to be back in the country if I am honest with myself, as much as I disapprove of moving all of the time... I’m elated about this move.

As Mum and I walk along the orange gravel driveway, the gravel crunches beneath our shoes loudly, until we approach a recycled brick path that leads to a gorgeous ‘century old’ recycled brick house.

The cute little lanterns scattered through the cottage garden are welcoming and light our way, until we eventually climb up a step or two in order to follow a long veranda, which leads to an enchanting, white, entrance door. The door to my favourite home of all...

Mum rummages around in her ‘Mary Poppins bag’ as she so fondly calls it in search of the house key (Mum’s bag really does have everything you could ever dream of inside).

I’m sure it’s in here somewhere, Mum groans. Ah... ha... finally! Mum declares.

Dragonfly Hill... we’re home! she says with a mixture of excitement and relief, I don’t blame her; my poor Mum must be exhausted after the long drive.

My mother opens the door and we walk into the house, it’s almost as though we’ve entered a magical world... forgotten through time. The house is simply stunning, everywhere you look is beautiful and there’s something wonderful and interesting to look at. The house has an old-world feel and it’s filled with fresh flowers from the cottages garden and old French furniture, which was all acquired over the years, from a lifetime of travel. There are lots of charming photo frames trinkets and other little treasures around the place to admire, all pleasant reminders of precious family memories.

A glorious fire welcomes us and illuminates the room as it crackles and dances delightfully for our entertainment and warmth. In my opinion it is almost begging for some marshmallows to be toasted above its warm flame and perhaps a mug of hot chocolate to wash it down with. As soon as Mum enters the room she flops instantly and lazily on a cosy old chair, which is placed perfectly in front of the fire, while I venture off to explore the old place. The house is rich in history... our family history and it’s been a while since we’ve been here, so I’m eager to explore.

Our family has owned this place forever, my mother grew up here with her parents and so did all of the generations before them, the house is so old and well loved, that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the walls could talk. Even though we circulate from house to house to remain undetected, this place has always been where I feel at home the most and I am so happy to be here. My family owns various different properties all over the world, which we live at for limited periods of time for our personal safety and self-preservation.

Dragonfly Hill is one of the many properties we own and is by far my favourite of them all. It’s the one place in the world I truly feel safe and it has always offered me a sense of what it feels like to have a real home.

There are several sweet little cottages on this property, which were all, built for our family and friends to stay in when required... however, most of the cottages are often empty because we all travel so frequently. The locals think our property is a bed and breakfast, because there are always so many Chameleons coming and going from the place (who of course, all appear as Humans when they are in town). Every Chameleon who visits Dragonfly Hill is mindful to change their appearance when they head to town to run errands etc. otherwise the property is private enough to reveal our natural appearance and leave our eyes rainbow and allow our skin colours to flicker if we wish to do so. We can be ourselves here. The only rule at Dragonfly Hill is to always appear as random Human executives on a country holiday, if you go into town to prevent the local Humans from becoming suspicious and maintain the anonymity of our species.

Most Chameleons are only capable of changing their appearances for short periods of time, perhaps for forty minutes tops and then their energy levels seem to suddenly default somehow and they appear as themselves once again. This means they look exactly like a normal Human being does... apart from their rainbow coloured eyes, which makes it really challenging to hide the true identity of our species all of the time so most Chameleons wear dark sunglasses when they are out doors in public to conserve energy and save themselves from having to constantly change their eye colour. If they go to a shop for example, they change their eyes from rainbow to blue, take off their sunglasses, walk inside the store to buy their milk and bread and pay the cashier casually. Once they are outside again, on go the dark sunglasses and they change their eye colour back to rainbow.

Being elusive and wearing dark sunglasses is a dead giveaway to the authorities and a tell-tale sign that they look out for, still it’s the best way Chameleons have of conserving energy and preventing ourselves from revealing our rainbow eyes to Humans. Besides, heaps of Humans wear sunglasses anyway, so it is not always a dead giveaway to the authorities, as long as we are careful not to draw any attention to ourselves. Fortunately, there are an exceptional few Chameleons, who are capable of changing the appearance of the colour of our eyes for longer... I am one of them.

We Chameleons, can also appear as any Human form we desire and mirror the exact image of any Human being... even a famous celebrity. For example, I could appear as Angelina Jolie if I really wanted to, however, if I was to mirror a major celebrity like her in public, it would attract a mammoth amount of unwanted and unnecessary attention... so I never do. So when Chameleons head to town for our milk and bread etc. we always appear as regular people. We do however change our form into celebrities sometimes when we are home, just for a laugh and to goof around. It’s kind of an old family joke now and it is a lot of fun really... but we mainly do it for practice and to brush up on our skills. The more we practice the more accomplished we become at it. It’s called mirroring. All we have to do is memorise the image of a person we have previously seen, and then mirror the memory of that humans reflection, and we appear as whomever we have just mirrored. Pop often pretends to be ‘Will Ferrell’ for instance, because he thinks the man is a genius and hilariously funny as do we all. Not in public though.

My grandparents are the owners of Dragonfly Hill and often receive calls from random people, requesting accommodation even though Dragonfly Hill isn’t advertised as a bed and breakfast. Pop has a sign hanging on our front gate to keep the locals believing their story. It simply says,

Dragonfly Hill B and B

Private adults retreat

Fully booked

Sometimes the locals ask if they can make a reservation for their family that are visiting the town to stay at Dragonfly Hill, but my Pop always politely declines their booking and explains that Dragonfly Hill is a private retreat for executives only. People are still very persistent though and constantly ask to stay here, I guess because the property is just so beautiful and it has many admirers. Even though Pop has told all the locals that Dragonfly Hill is a purely a private retreat for executives, there is always someone who will sheepishly ask if they can stay for a night or two.

Surprisingly it’s often a local who knows better than to ask and other times it’s a random person who has driven by, seen the sign and decided to see if they can persuade Pop to bend the rules so that they can stay. My grandparents always use the standard answer and politely explain that they are always fully booked, as Dragonfly Hill is purely for executives that represent various companies who have Pop under contract. Pop’s ingenious plan has served him well over the years and apart from having to disappoint a few people now and again most have given up asking. Thanks to Pop’s diligent persistence, Dragonfly Hill is known in town as an exclusive retreat for over worked executives in need of a private escape and a decent rest. This arrangement has worked well for my grandparents over the years and they have never once had any trouble here.

Nan and Pop have thought of everything, they are so organised as always. Especially given they live in such a small country town, where there is generally no such thing as anonymity. With a population of only five thousand, most people know each other or are connected in some way. In a town where everyone knows each other, most people are heavily involved in the community. Sport plays a big role in that connection. Football, volleyball, tennis, swimming and golf seem to unite the town’s people the most.

If you weren’t involved in the town in one-way or another, it would be considered peculiar. With that in mind, Nan and Pop have gone to extraordinary lengths to become heavily involved in the town events and sports. Nan has even committed to becoming the treasurer on the local country women’s association and plays tennis religiously with the local women every Wednesday. Nan and Pop always appear as themselves as they are permanent members of the community. The rest of us appear as a visiting executive Human guest and this keeps the charade going.

Pop is also heavily involved in the community here. I always enjoy watching him having a game of volleyball with the locals, when I visit. It is one of his various community orientated past times and it is hilarious to watch. Every time I visit Pop, I try to make the time to go with him to the local recreation centre to watch him play. The game can really get quite competitive for a humble mixture of