Taylor's view of the city was something far removed from human sight. To see the top of your own head as easily as straight forward, with people and objects cut up like Picasso paintings- the front and sides visible all at once.
The eyes are startlingly beautiful. They didn't see just shape and color. They saw infrared heat. Trails, like the ones your mouse cursor leaves on the computer screen. There were imprints of footsteps and breath, glowing cars and tire tracks. It allows the insect to follow movement and direction more closely. It also sees through the outer layers of skin, showing faint outlines of organs, a pattern of life. And all that was a drastic shift, but even more so was the sense of touch. It was like being blind and then suddenly gaining use of vision- a whole universe of sensation. Only it was touch instead of vision- the minute hairs on the exoskeleton alive with vibrations in the air, pointing to food or danger with every motion. It was suddenly possible to tell what wires had a live current. And last was the antennae, like nose and tongue combined into a single organ. It picked up molecules of carbon and moisture with each pass of the air.
It was like this that the shaman explored. The insect body was certain to be the one she used when fleeing, and would be the one familiarized to the way.
She landed in an area where there were relatively few lights. Her claws touched down in the dirt of an alley. Human sweat hung on the currents. Something warm lay before her. As she approached, she saw that it was a bundle of rags, quivering softly; a person curled within a tattered blanket. More people slept among him. There was a sibilation of wings as Taylor latched onto the wall and moved past them. She still gripped the wall as she passed up to the street, clawing past fire escapes and piping. She hugged it's vertical surface, unmoving, watching from the dim light while what looked like another homeless man staggered by.
Taylor emerged from the shadow as a girl once more. A message from her cell phone gave the location of the meeting place. There was a great sense of disconnect and separation. She was physically different from everyone else, but it was the differences you can't see that were even greater.
