Owlbears are big, and when you are one, you feel big. Or at least I did, I had to be at least ten times my normal mass, maybe even more. At first, I tried to be careful where I stepped, certain I would just crush everything around me by accident, which is why I suppose we had been practicing shapeshifting in a mostly empty field so that there wasn’t much for me to break. Other than Leoric and I had the feeling he could take care of himself.

“Hold on now! Baby steps, alright that’s it walk toward me! Very good! Amazingly good! Look at you not falling all over yourself! Haha! Look at you, already like a natural Owlbear! But still, you should practice!” Leoric grins as he guides me through my first steps and then points to a tree at the other side of the clearing. I want you to walk there, and then if your up for it, run back as fast as you can!”

Shrugging my great furry shoulders in ascension I began to lumber forward, going for a casual stroll across the grass. It’s odd really, I should feel out of place in this body, and yet I feel as if I’ve lived for years as an Owlbear. Walking is natural, simple even and it doesn’t take me long to reach the edge of the clearing and the tree Leoric had been pointing at. This has to be one of my passive abilities right? If I had to guess I’d be leaning towards [Monsterous Mentality] no idea how that works though, man I wish there was a system interface or a help screen, anything really. I pause hoping that the errant thought might magically summon a tutorial or user manual, no such luck just the rustle of wind through the trees.

Oh well, no way that would have worked, I think to myself before I circle the tree and dig my claws into the ground, huffing as I grip the earth and then launch myself forward with all the power I can muster, charging towards Leoric in the center of the clearing in a great trundling run.

Which is how I discovered that as an Owlbear I can go really, really fast. I mean I thought I could run quickly before in my human form, but my stat buffs must apply to all my forms because

I easily surpassed my previous speed, and then some.

“Squonk” What I’d give for a speedometer of a radar gun right now. Leaping the last bit of distance between myself and the elven druid my paws dig into the ground when I land, creating furrows as I slide through the dirt, even gripping with my claws it takes a few seconds to come to a complete stop.

“Well done young shifter! You move as if you were born an Owlbear! Perhaps you are the wisest of us all having chosen such skills hmm? Oh if only you could stay for a few years, I could train you properly, and build up your collection of Essences into something to be reckoned with!” Shaking his head Leoric raised a hand and slapped it onto the wooden pillar beside him, his hand blurring at the last moment in what had to be the activation of some sort of skill that had the impact of his hand leave the pillar shaking and a loud clap of sound echo around the clearing.

Sadly I’m here to make sure you know how to fight, and because I won’t be fighting you myself you’re going to need to practice on this here pole, I shouldn’t need to tell you this, but your most effective attacks will be done with your front claws and your beak. At least until your grappling with something, if that happens to be the case, you’ll want to wrap your front legs around them, rake with the back and get in some pecks or, biting with the beak if you can manage it. It’s fairly straightforward truthfully, it’s more the practice and application that gets you.” Leoric admitted before taking several steps back from the wooden training target. “Alright, enough jibber-jabber let’s see what you can do.

Even as an Owlbear my arms swelled to a noticeably larger size as the individual fibers of my fur thickened and I felt my bones creak as some part of their structure shifted to make them more durable. Even my claws had changed slightly, growing denser to deal with the greater force at play.

The first thing I did was give the wooden pole a testing push to see how sturdy it felt to me as an Owlbear, and surprisingly I didn’t feel it give or tremble under the weight of my paw. Which was enough for me to begin in earnest.

I started with horizontal rakes of my front claws, they dug into and then through the wood with ease, leaving behind deep gouges as woodchips went flying everywhere.

“Squonk” How much wood can an Owlbear chuck if an Owlbear can chuck wood. I’d be grinning if the beak on my face allowed for it, Vertical swipes yielded similar results, but they had given me an idea.

Standing up on my hind legs now I raised a paw skyward and brought it down at a forty-five-degree angle at the wooden target, all of my not inconsiderable weight now behind the force of the blow.

With a resounding cracking sound my paw clawed through the target entirely and broke it in half. The upper portion falling to the ground with a thud, I squonked loudly in victory. If I could do that to a solid log, then I could easily wreck any monster I came across. Feeling more than a little smug I placed my front paws on the portion of the log still sticking out of the ground and pushed forward on it. It didn’t take long to get the result I wanted as it too cracked, this time at the base and fell over.

“Haha alright, alright! I think you are more than a little qualified to take down an unmoving target, no need to bully my training dummies.”Leoric glanced over at Julius who had begun making his way over toward us as I destroyed the training log.” Looks like your minder has seen enough, best you change back for now young shifter lest he thinks you might make a break for it.”

I glanced over at Julius, who was indeed making his way over and let out a huff of annoyance, I had almost managed to forget the circumstances which had brought me to this point. Oh well, probably better I don’t get too distracted for right now.

Shifting back to my human self, my human form? I’ll have to work on that. Shifting back to normal was like becoming the Owlbear in reverse, the fire this time manifested throughout my body and made its way toward my heart as my body shrunk and lost its fur, the world around me seeming to grow back to normal proportions. Weirdly, it was almost like breaching the surface of the ocean as I stood up and finished shedding the extra mass of my Owlbear form.

“Oh hey, my clothes survived! I was worried I’d have to deal with new clothes every time I shift.”

That got a laugh out of Leoric just as Julius arrived only to eye me with newfound wariness.

” Seems like you’ve figured out how to shapeshift, and destroy our training dummies while you’re at it. Which is good enough for me to clear you for the mission.” Bowing to Leoric once more Julius spoke in a more serious tone. [Druid of Change] thank you for taking the time to teach Alyx so that he may serve the village.

Leoric for his part shook his head and tsked at Julius.” The Elder should have retired a long time ago, and this decision is just the latest of many acts of foolishness. I did as you asked, you’ll get what you want from young Alyx here, but come the festival I will make my complaints known.” Turning away from Julius Leoric swept me up in a hug that I was even less prepared for than the knife in my stomach earlier this morning.” Do your best not to die! Oh and remember, Damage doesn’t carry over from a large form to a smaller one, so long as you have enough undamaged mass to form a new body! But the same does not hold true in reverse! Any wounds you take from a smaller form into a larger one will be exacerbated!”

“Thank you Leoric, you’ve been kind to me,” I say as Julius looks between us, annoyed either by Leorics threat or his affection towards me, though probably the former. Leoric giving me one final slap on the arm turned away from us both, and hopped into the air, transforming in a flash of green light as he did so. His body shrinking into the size and shape of a hawk as he took flight, screeching into the morning air.

It is an oddly beautiful sight watching him fly away, wondering if I would live long enough to try for a flying form. If I could capture that moment in a photo to preserve the memory I would, instead, I do my best to take a mental snapshot, before I am pulled from my revere by Julius putting a hand on my back and steering me toward the village.

“Come, Andrea is waiting and we will want to arrive at the shrine before dark.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Symphonia smiled at her distant relative, Andrea despite being three generations removed from Symphonia reminded the Elder of herself at a young age. Brash, deadly, filled with an eagerness for violence that would need to be tempered with empathy in time. For now, however, that eagerness was exactly what she wanted from Andrea.

“ I have already informed Julius of this, but I shall explain it to you as well. You two will lead the human to the shrine of the moon, and he alone will engage the spawn that desecrates our sacred temple. Under no circumstances are you to put yourself in a position of danger for the sake of that young man!”

Of course, Symphonia knew of Andrea’s distaste for humans, and of the stabbing this morning, she was merely keeping up the appearance of an Ill-informed old woman who only saw what she wanted to see.” When either the spawn or the human have perished I want you to clean up whichever is left. We can not simply let an outsider leave with our secrets, no matter how well he performs. If he has failed to kill the spawn then you and Julius are free to attempt to kill it, but I only want you risking yourselves if you think you can win. If you perform admirably I could see myself agreeing to your request of visiting the other villages...After the festival of course.”

Andrea’s resulting smirk was a mixture of bloodlust and triumph, and it was everything Symphonia had hoped to see. Still, she brought her walking stick down on the girl’s head anyway.” Don’t get overeager! Humans have remarkably good survival instincts, if he discovers this plan then there is no doubt he will attempt to escape.”

Andrea, only slightly humbled by her Elders words nodded and rubbed at her head where the walking stick had come down on it.” yes Elder, I will be exact in my duties I swear it.”

“Harumph, we shall see about that. Now get going, they should be done soon with their training.”Symphonia didn’t wait to see if Andrea obeyed her, turning around and making her way to the next problem on her list. That damn village council was going to try and unseat her at this year’s festival she just knew it. Hopefully having the shrine back under elven control would be enough to dislodge any support their complaints had gathered.