I looked from him to Daniel. “Who’s the mountain lion, and who’s the skunk?”
Daniel burst out laughing while Malik just glared at me.
I turned to Hannah, feeling my face burn. “Is that not okay to ask? Sorry, I’m still learning.”
She waved me off. “No, that’s completely fine. Shifters don’t care if you ask what their animal form is, it’s just that you called Malik a skunk.”
“Oh.” I bit my lip and looked at him. “Sorry. I just saw a black animal with a white streak. I didn’t get a good look.”
He sighed, and his lips turned up. “It’s fine. I’m a honey badger. We’re not all that common around here, so it’s fair that you didn’t recognize one.”
“Where are honey badgers from?” I asked, wanting to know as much as possible about the first shifter I’d ever met.
“Western Asia and parts of Africa.”
“Okay. Does that mean you’re from there?”
He smiled while narrowing his eyes. “Yeah, I’m Arab, but my grandparents immigrated to the U.S., so I consider myself American.”
I didn’t know if that was a sore spot since he said it so frankly or if it was just his personality. I was too curious to worry right now. “So are shifter’s animals based on where they are from?”
Daniel and Malik shared a look before Daniel replied, “Just how new are you?”
Hannah stepped forward and punched his arm. “Be nice. She only recently manifested. She was raised in the non-supernatural world.”
Both of the boys looked shocked.
“Really?” Malik asked. “No wonder you have a million questions.”
“Be nice. Saige is in our year, so we’re going to help her navigate things.” Hannah said with a pointed look at each of them.
“Oh, we are? Well, it’s a good thing we ran into you.” Daniel grinned.
Hannah’s chin tilted up. “I was going to text you when we got back to the dorm. I told her I’d put together a study group to help her. Now we just need a few vampires.”
I cringed, still not quite sure about meeting the undead—or whatever they were.
“Don’t worry. They’re not nearly as scary as non-supes make them out to be.” Daniel winked at me.
I forced a smile and looked down at the ground. Something was still nagging at me. “If you guys ran in front of me, then who caught me?”
Hannah held up her hand and did a small finger wave. “That would be me. I’m an air.”
She said that as if that should explain it all.
“Hannah,she’s new.” Malik teased. “She means her affinity is air. She probably manipulated it to catch you.”
“Yep. I compressed it to take a form to hold you and pull you up.”
I blinked at her. “Those were the hands I felt?”
She smiled proudly. “Cool, huh?”
“Will I learn to do stuff like that?”
“Of course.” She seemed excited. “Well, similar things, depending on your affinity. Things like that come pretty naturally to us. Give yourself a few weeks, and you can show off some of your abilities.”
I seriously doubted I’d be able to have that sort of control. So far, I only made mistakes.