There was a crack as the staffs connected. The impact was so intense the staffs broke, and a small explosion threw Drew into the air and against the far wall. He bounced off and collapsed onto the floor. I dropped the pieces of my staff like they were on fire. My skin was on fire. Heat rushed through my limbs and into my face. What was going on? Professor Sarah rushed to Drew. Sounds crashed into my ears. The sound of the students around us backing away grated in my ears. Rubber soles rubbing against the mats on the floor sounded like an avalanche of rocks. I had to cover my ears with hands. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. Once. Twice. Three times. The heat faded and then I was able to get my hearing back to normal. Professor Sarah helped Drew stand up.
“Everything okay?” Professor Sarah asked him.
“Yeah,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. He unfurled his wings behind him for a moment and then pulled them tight against his back again. He looked up at me and, to my surprise, grinned.
“Wow, Sophie, that was impressive. No one has knocked me off my feet in a long time. How did you do it?”
“I have absolutely no idea.”
It was still dark when I woke on my birthday. Sweat soaked through my nightgown and sheets. I threw the covers off. My normally comfy mattress dug into my back, and then into my side, and then into my elbow. The pillows suffocated me. A sliver of moonlight shone on my analog alarm clock telling me it was just past 3 a.m.. I gave up on sleep and let myself out onto the balcony.
The full moon was huge in the sky. It gave everything outside a ghostly silver glow. I saw the shadows of wolves running around in the fields to my left. On the night of the full moon the werewolves were allowed to run outside on campus while in their wolf forms. A couple of howls sent shivers down my spine. I looked down at the ground to see a group of wolves walking along the tree line. One large white wolf stuck out. Hudson stopped for a moment and looked in my direction. I didn’t know if he could see me, but I waved anyway.
A strong wind began to blow, and the wolves took off, running past the dorms and out to the fields. I envied their ability to run as fast as they could with the night and the wind. I opened my arms as wide as I could and let the wind blow over my body and whip my hair out behind me. It felt glorious.
A sudden desire to throw myself off the balcony and let the wind carry me away gripped me. I took two steps toward the edge and then laughed at how ridiculous I was being. Instead of throwing myself to certain injury and possibly death, I sat down on top of the balcony table.
I closed my eyes and focused on the feeling of the wind and the night surrounding me. Professor Atkins said we should be able to connect with our animal by our birthday. I turned my attention inward. Everything was the same. I sighed and started to move my attention away. But then I felt it. There was something else—something other—deep within me. It was new and yet as much a part of me as my limbs. This was what I had felt yesterday when the anger and strength had rushed through me. It was my animal. She was there inside me, trying to rise to the surface.
Something blocked her, though. Was it me? Was I scared to face this truth? Even though I told everyone I had no idea what kind of animal I was going to be, I had always wondered. And now that she was there, it seemed like it should’ve been so obvious all along.
“I’m glad you’re there,” I told the animal within me quietly. “Even though I know the Revealing is never wrong, there was still a part of me that was scared Simon was really the one who was supposed to be here. But I’m ready now. So, come on out. Come to me and be ready during class. I’m ready to meet you. Let’s take this place by storm.”
The restlessness subsided as I sat outside. I stayed and watched the wolves as the stars faded and the horizon turned from black to gray. I waited until the sky turned pink and the sun began to appear before I went back inside to get ready for the day to come.
“Happy Birthday!” The yell from my living room startled me as I left my bedroom to head to class. Gracie, Willa, and Hudson stood around a small cake on the coffee table.
“Oh, wow guys, thank you!” I said, completely overwhelmed by their thoughtfulness.
“Come blow out your candles!” Gracie said.
“How did you make this?” The cake had ‘Happy Birthday, Sophie’ written across it and sixteen candles lined up around the outside.
“I have a flair for culinary magic,” Willa said.
“Don’t forget to make a wish,” Gracie reminded me. I closed my eyes and wished I wouldn’t embarrass myself in front of the class today. Taking a deep breath, I blew out all the candles in one go.
“Yay,” Gracie said. “Now come on, we have to get to class. Here, I grabbed you a toaster pastry from the cafeteria for breakfast when you didn’t come down with Willa. Eat it, you have to have something before class. We will eat cake and you can open your presents later today. Are you excited to try shifting for the first time?”
“Mostly nervous,” I said around bites of the food Gracie had pushed into my hands.
“Have any idea what you’re going to be, yet?” Hudson asked.
“No.” It wasn’t completely a lie. He continued to watch me.
“What? Do you think you know what I’m going to be?”
“I have a guess,” he said.
“Are you going to tell me?”
“No. That would take all the fun out of it.” I shook my head at him as we entered the gymnasium just as the bell rang. I wasn’t listening as Professor Atkins gave his typical introduction. The buzz in my ears grew louder as I followed the rest of the class out to the field. I was the only birthday. All eyes would be on me. The confidence that filled me that morning when I was alone on the balcony had faded, and a bundle of nerves had taken its place. Why couldn’t we just shift in some quiet part of the campus all alone for the first time? I was painfully aware of my brother’s absence. The lack of his calm and assuring presence was a raw wound in my heart.
Everyone turned to look at me and I realized the professor had quit talking and was staring at me expectantly. I met his eyes and raised my eyebrows.
“It’s now or never, Sophie. Don’t you want to connect with your animal for the first time?” He motioned with his hand to the center of the field. A huge knot materialized in my chest.
“Of course,” I said, trying not to betray my nerves. I could do this. Almost twenty students from our class had already shifted. Aside from the boy who only changed halfway into a gazelle, every shift had gone well. And besides, he’d shifted just fine the next day.
“If they can all do it, then so can I,” I muttered as I weaved my way through my fellow students and out into the field. Hudson squeezed my shoulder as I passed. The knot in my chest loosened a little. My friends followed me to the front of the students. Then I made the journey to the center of the field alone.
I tried to block out all the stares and focus on concrete details. The grass was still damp from early morning dew. It seeped into my shoes and on my ankles. The uniforms for the academy constantly annoyed me. Why couldn’t we all wear pants? No, that was no good. No use getting worked up now.
With a deep breath to settle my nerves, I closed my eyes and tried to find that feeling of otherness again. It didn’t take long to find her. I smiled. She came forward in a rush. She unfurled within me. My body grew larger, my limbs longer. The pressure in my body and mind came swiftly. Just when I thought I was going to explode there was a flash of light inside and outside of my consciousness and my shift was completed.
I was big. No, I was huge. Most of the students from my class were now pushed back against the building. They looked like dolls from up here. Something twisted in my eyes and then I could see them as if we stood face-to-face. Only Professor Atkins and Hudson were standing where I had left them. Admiration shone in Hudson’s eyes. A noise erupted from my chest. Not a roar. It was much deeper and fuller. Like a purr. I sunk my talons into the dirt thrashed my tail back and forth behind me. A feeling of elation rushed over me.
I was a dragon.
Of course. How could I have thought I would be anything different? Energy crashed through me and I did the only thing I could think of. I lifted my head up to the sky and let out a roar. Flames erupted from my mouth. I flapped my bat-like wings once, twice, three times and lifted my body from the ground. I flapped until I hovered high above the field.
A gust of wind hit me, and I flattened my body and soared in a large circle around the campus of the academy. I knew I should go back and become human again, but I didn’t want to yet. I wanted to fly and soar and hunt and tear into something. My dragon’s feelings were taking over, and I wanted to revel in them before switching back to my boring human form.
I was glad the shields of the academy included the sky, so I didn’t have to worry about any humans in New York City spotting a dragon soaring around. I flew once around the campus, delighting in the awe and fear I saw in the eyes of the students who spotted me. The purring sound in my chest continued. Eventually, I began to make lazy circles, each one smaller than the last, slowly coming down out of the sky like a hawk looking for its next meal. My feet touched down onto the field again, my talons making deep gashes in the grass and dirt. Most of the class had returned to stand next to Hudson.
“Okay Sophie,” Professor Atkins said. I realized I could hear him as if he were standing right next to my ear. “Let’s see you change back to human now. You’ll have plenty of time to explore your new form later.” I let out a sigh and a few more flames escaped my mouth. Oops. I closed my eyes to return to human form, but nothing happened.
“Think of your human form,” Professor Atkins prompted. “What you look like, how you feel in your own body.”
I tried again. My long, straight brown hair and perfectly matched brown eyes came to mind. I was tall, with long legs and knobby knees that made me look like a stork. My arms were also long and ungainly. But that had changed some since coming to the academy, I realized. My legs and arms weren’t so ungainly. With the physical classes like shifting and defense, I was putting on some muscle tone. I thought about how it felt to walk on two legs. And the butterflies that filled my stomach when Drew looked at me. I thought about Simon. How our hair and eyes perfectly matched. How, if I put on a loose shirt and tucked my hair up under a hat, we could pass for each other. Simon didn’t have a dragon form. That made me sad.
Finally, there was another flash of light. This time there was no feeling of changing, but when I opened my eyes, I was human again. For a moment the world seemed blurry and muffled after the extraordinary vision and hearing of my dragon. The sound of clapping startled me. I looked up and my class—plus students and professors from other classes—were all clapping for me. I blushed as I made my way back across the field.
To my surprise Headmistress Adiana stepped forward through the crowd as I approached. The applause died down. The headmistress was rarely seen in the day-to-day operations of the school. Had I done something wrong?
“Welcome to the family of shifters and animages, Sophie. None of us were expecting a dragon this year, so your appearance is a delight. I’m sure good things will come our way in the years you bless the academy with your presence. Would you care to join me in my office for a bit?”
“Yes, Headmistress.”
I followed the headmistress silently as we walked through the grounds of the academy toward the administration building. She didn’t say anything, so I just kept my eyes on the back of her white hair. We entered the building. Mrs. Winnifred sat at her desk just inside the door next to the student mailboxes.
“Oh Sophie,” she said when she saw me. “Happy Birthday! And congratulations on your first shift. I have some letters and a couple of packages here for you. Would you like them now, or later?”
“Will you have them delivered to Sophie’s rooms, please Mrs. Winnifred?”
“Of course,” she said, not missing a beat. “They will be in your room after class, Sophie.”
“Thank you,” I called as Headmistress Adiana led me past Mrs. Winnifred’s desk, past the doors to the auditorium, and into the hall that held most of the professors’ offices. We passed door after door, and I couldn’t help but be curious about what they held. There were definitely not that many professors at the school.
Finally, we arrived at an ornate wooden door at the end of a long hallway. The headmistress placed her hand firm against the area a door handle should be. The door glowed red for a moment and there was a click before it swung inward. We entered a massive room. There were bookshelves full to bursting with books and decorations. A large wooden desk sat in front of them. To the right were large windows that overlooked the cobblestone street and classroom buildings. To the right was a huge table with at least 16 chairs set up around it.
“Please, have a seat, Sophie. I will be right back.” I nodded and sat down on the edge of one of the chairs around the table. My hands smoothed my skirt, attempting to make sure it wasn’t wrinkled. This grand office made me feel small and alone. My shift had filled me with a nervous energy I couldn’t seem to shake. This body was suddenly confining, the room I was in was too small. I bounced my foot against the floor. My dragon was still close to the surface. She wanted out again. She wanted to feel the wind under her wings and soar as high as she could go. The urge was so strong I had to stand up and walk around the table, taking deep breaths to push her back away from the surface. As I made a second lap, I heard footsteps coming down the hall. Two sets. The door opened again.
“Dad?” I asked as my father walked into the room behind Headmistress Adiana. He smiled at me and opened his arms. I rushed into them and he picked me up in a big hug.
“Happy birthday, my girl.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Well, Jolene contacted me to tell me about your first shift and I knew I had to come and see you.”
“I’ll leave you two alone for a bit,” the headmistress said. She smiled at my father and left the room.
“But, how did you get here so quickly? I shifted not even an hour ago.” My dad laughed. “I’m glad to see you. I didn’t think I’d get to see anyone on our birthday.”
“It sounds like your first shift was amazing. I wish I could’ve been here for it.”
“It was, Dad. It felt—I don’t even know how to explain it. Like the most wonderful thing in the world. It was hard for me to change back.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty normal. The first time I shifted I didn’t change back for a week.”
“A whole week? Wow.” I sat down in the same chair as before, but my father remained standing. He was shifting his weight back and forth and even though he seemed happy in a less confident man, I would have thought he was nervous.
“Dad, what’s wrong?” I finally asked. “Are you upset that I’m the dragon? Would you rather it be Simon?”
“Oh now, honey, that’s not it at all,” he said, finally taking a seat in the chair next to me. He spun it to the side, so he was facing me. “I’m so proud of you. It takes a lot of power to be a dragon. I’m not surprised you have it in you.”
“Thanks,” I said, touched by the compliment. My dad had never said anything like that to me before. “But if that’s the case, what’s wrong? Is everything okay with Mom and Simon?”
“Yes, they’re missing you, but they’re great. Nothing is wrong, really. What I’m here to tell you isn’t easy, though.”
I was getting concerned now. “What do you need to tell me?”
“Well, honey. Unleashing the power of your dragon and coming into your powers as an animage is going to be a big catalyst for changes in your life.” He paused and leaned back in his chair with a sigh.
“Like what, Dad? Just say it.”
“Well there’s too many for me to go over right now but the biggest one. The one you need to know about and get used to is this: You’re immortal.”
The ticking of the clock on the wall was the only noise in the room.
“I’m immortal?” I repeat
ed back to my father. He nodded. I had never really thought about dying. But not dying? Not growing old? That was a different story altogether.
“That doesn't make any sense.”
“Every animage who turns into an immortal animal is immortal themselves.”
“That can't be right,” I protested. “Our family has had a dragon shifter every generation. But now you're telling me that your father and his father before him and his father before him are all alive somewhere?”
“Not exactly,” Dad said, shifting forward in his seat and putting his arms on his knees so we were eye-to-eye. “You see, there's not been dragons in each generation of our family. There's only been one dragon: me.”
I stared at my dad like I had never seen him before. The only dragon? Silence stretched out between us.
“I don't understand,” I said finally. “If you're the only dragon, how old are you?”
“Oh, I don't really hold with birthdays anymore,” my father said. “But, I think I’m closing in on 1000 soon.”
I couldn’t find my voice. “1000 years old?” I managed to squeak out. “1000 years old?” I said again after I cleared by throat. “But if you’re the only dragon, why does everyone think there has been so many? Why have I never heard about this before?”
“I’m gifted in what I like to call suggestive magic. I can suggest a scenario and people believe it.”
“You lie to people,” I said bluntly.
“It’s for the best. Immortal animages used to be hunted for their blood. Even other supernaturals would hunt them, thinking their blood would bring them strength and immortality.”
“Does it?” A shadow crossed my father’s face. “In the Dark Ages the dragons were hunted to extinction. I’m the only one left. Now, immortality is one of the animages’ best-kept secrets. Immortals aren’t allowed to tell anyone except their mates. Only other immortals know how it works. I noticed he didn’t bother to answer my question.
Dragons and Destiny (Animage Academy Book 1) Page 7
