Transformation

When did life become so complicated?  It seemed like Kate was always doing something, never taking a break to relax.  If she wasn't doing something at home, she was running all over town doing errands or driving out to a nearby city for school or work.  The girl glanced at her phone, reading—for the tenth time that day—the text message she had sent herself, brown eyes dark with worry, afraid she'd forget.

She couldn't afford to mess up; she couldn't let her partner down.  The other three members of their group hadn't showed up to class the previous week, after all, so the only two who had showed up had to rely on each other to complete the assignment on time.  2 days left, Kate reminded herself, glancing at her left palm where she had written as much, hoping a constant reminder would keep her from forgetting.

Brushing her brown hair back from her eyes, she stuffed her phone back into her pocket, sighing with annoyance as she continued to sketch in her small sketchbook, the strange creature on the page slowly taking form.

"Hey, what'cha workin' on this time, D.?"

She twitched at the voice, glaring at the phone she had put on speaker.

"I told you not to call me that!  Sheesh…"

The young man on the other end of the line snickered, wishing he could see what she was doing.

"Would you prefer I called you Dragon?"

Kate snorted, turning her back to the phone and muttering angrily, "I'd prefer it if you'd call me by my name.  Jerk."

He rolled his eyes, wishing he could poke her, just to bug her further.

"But I thought you were going by Dragon now?"

Kate twitched at his teasing tone, rolling her eyes even though he couldn't see her.

"That's only online, and even then only in certain communities."

"But you're getting a bit more known, right?  You've had people notice your stuff, and even had some requests!"

She sighed, wondering if she'd done something to deserve this interruption to her drawing.

"You know I don't normally care about what others think of what I write or draw.  I do it because I like to do it.  I do it for me."

He smiled to himself as he relented with his teasing.

"Yeah, I know.  But it's cool that people like your stuff, right?"

She sighed, setting her pencil down and grabbing her pen, starting to go over the lines she wanted to keep with ink.

"Well, only a bit more known and it's really only my friends and a few random people.  But yeah, it was pretty cool to have somebody as if I'd draw them something, and have somebody I don't know tell me they liked my writing."

She smiled at the two memories, neither one something she was used to.  Her quick, sure pen movements ceased a few moments later and she reached for her eraser, going over the picture to remove the pencil marks.

The silence stretched out as she worked.  It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, but a companionable one.  The two had been friends most of their lives.

She stifled a yawn, blinking at her drawing.

"By the way, to answer your question, I'm drawing.  I just finished cleaning it up for scanning."

Kate turned around, setting her pen back down, having just finished going back over the lines a second time.  She grabbed the phone, turned it off speaker, and put it to her ear as she got up from her bed, heading downstairs to her computer.

"And what are you putting off doing, hmmm?"

She laughed at the accusation; he'd gotten it right on the mark.  Not that she'd admit it outright, though.

"I'm not procrastinating; I just can't focus because of the stupid image in my head.  I get these stupid ideas in my head and the refuse to let me focus on anything else unless I draw them or write them down.  But if you must know what I'll be working on next, it's my homework."

She heard the amusement in his voice at her response.

"I knew it.  You never do your homework right away.  Lazy bum."

She snorted, giving a different reply than her usual.

"I'm not a bum.  I'm lazy, but not a bum.  That's you."

"Oh, that was mean!"

Kate snickered at his fake hurt tone, knowing him too well to honestly think he meant that.

"I know.  I'm evil.  Being nice is no fun."

She grinned, already knowing what he would say.  He didn't disappoint her.

"I know, right?  Being mean is much more entertaining."

She could hear the grin in his voice as she scanned her picture into her computer.  She didn't manage to stifle her yawn this time.

"Hmmmm….  Sleepy?  Try actually sleeping at night, it helps!"

She rolled her eyes as she put the phone back on speaker, pulling up the picture and working with the lines on her computer.

"Actually, I have been getting enough sleep lately.  I'm just tired all the time…  But that's not it; sometimes I just lose focus for no reason.  I'm out of it more often than I normally am…"

There was silence for a few minutes as she worked, her friend unsure of what to say.  Kate saved her picture, pulling it up in another program as she waited to hear his response.  It came hesitantly.

"Have you…  Considered…  Asking what Classification you are…?"

Kate started, staring at the phone in surprise.  She hardly noticed the smear of color she had accidentally drawn across her image.

"What?  Why?  You don't…  No, no way."  She laughed at the absurdity of his hinted-at suggestion.  "There's no way, c'mon.  I'm just coming down with something; I'm not close to that at all.  I'm not about to Change.  Honestly."

He sighed, knowing how Kate could get about that subject.  It's not that Changing was a bad thing, it was just…  And unpleasant process, as anybody who had Changed could tell you.  He hadn't Changed yet, but his younger brother had.

"Still, why not ask?  I mean, you never know.  Matt Changed three days ago."

Kate blinked in surprise, wondering what his brother's Altered Form was.  Very few people knew, prior to Changing, what their Altered Form would be unless they consulted somebody.  There were individuals with a gift for discerning Altered Forms before an individual had Changed For the first time.  Several of them worked in an office in the downtown area.  One simply made an appointment to have their Life Code read.  The Form Discerners were rarely wrong.

"He's a Rat, just like we joked about!"

Kate could hear her friend's laughter, and wasn't able to hold back her own.  They often joked about what their Altered Forms might be, and what the Forms of their siblings might be.  But to actually have his brother's form be a Rat, just like they had joked about?  Fate was just plain funny sometimes.

It was several moments before the laughter died down.  In the silence that followed, she undid the line of color and worked on her picture.  Several minutes passed in the silence, which was slowly becoming uncomfortable, before her friend sighed.

"But, seriously, have you considered asking what your Classification might be?  They could possibly tell you when you might Change, too…"

Kate rolled her eyes, continuing her work as she responded.

"Yeah, but…  I don't want to know.  Besides, I'm sure it's something small, like a cat or something.  Not like I'll be Changing anytime soon, though."

He sighed, shaking his head.

"Well, I've gotta go pick up the Rat from class.  Talk to you later, then?"

Kate smiled, nodding even though he couldn't see her.

"Yeah.  Later!"

She pressed the off button on the phone, yawning again before returning her attention to her picture. 'Hmmm…' The blue was too light, just darken it a bit and…  There!  She smiled as she continued to work, ignoring the yawns that came more and more frequently.


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

Several Days Later

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"Jake…?"

"Hey, you okay?  You don't sound so good…"

Kate blinked her eyes blearily at the phone, taking a moment to try and focus before answering her friend.

"I…  Need help.  Can you come over…?"

Worry was evident in Jake's voice as he agreed, "I'll be there in 45 minutes or less."

Kate smiled tiredly, a thought flitting across her strangely blank mind.

"Oh…  Yeah…  Spare key in the draw…  In the garage.  Code is 9347…"

Jake quickly repeated the information to himself as he grabbed a pen and scribbled the info on his hand.  He was about to tell Kate he was leaving when her tired voice came from the phone.

"'m gonna Change…"

He froze, starring at the phone.  It took a few seconds for his brain to register what that meant.  She'd probably be in pain, for one thing.  And he might end up having to drive her to the Change Center if something went wrong.  Her folks were out of town and her younger brother was staying with cousins who lived about as far away from her place as Jake himself did.

"I'm on my way!"

Kate blinked exhaustedly at the phone for several minutes before managing to reach out and turn it off.  It was several more moments before she managed to set it back down and get a bit more comfortable on her bed, muttering to herself as she rolled onto her stomach.  Her back was killing her.

Kate stared into space for a while, wondering briefly if she had the energy to grab an ice pack; she was burning up.  Deciding she didn't have the energy, no matter how hot she felt, she sighed.  Her bleary eyes slowly closed, and she drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

***

Jake's car screeched to a halt in Kate's driveway and he scrambled to get out.  It took him a moment to get the garage door open, then another to locate the keys.  He was inside the house seconds later, darting up to her room, cursing at the sight before him.

Kate's brown eyes were open and glazed over, her entire body drenched in sweat.  Her breathing was shallow and ragged, and her skin had a strange bluish tint to it.  And…  Was she glowing?!  Not good, a glow almost always meant a trip to the local Change Center.  It was a fact hammered into everybody from a very young age.

Jake darted back to his car, opening the back door and clearing off the back seat.  He returned to Kate's room, and half-carried, half-dragged her out to his car, laying her across the back seat.  He quickly closed the garage door before climbing back into his car and taking off towards the Change Center.

***

At the large, dome-shaped, white-painted building that was the Change Center; Jake pulled his car up and scrambled out of his seat, struggling to get Kate out of the back seat.  He, once again, half-carried, half-dragged her.  Once inside the automatic doors, they were instantly met by an older woman in a white shirt and black pants.  She took one look at Kate and grabbed hold of her, helping Jake to carry/drag her.

"We need to get her to a Change Chamber, fast.  How long has she been like this?  What's her Classification?  What's your relationship with her?"

Jake was a bit taken aback by the rapid-fire questions, but managed to answer after a few seconds of gathering his scattered thoughts.

"I'm her friend; her folks are out of town.  Got a call from her about an hour and 15 minutes ago.  Dunno her Classification, she refused to see a Form Discerner."

The woman sighed, muttering darkly under her breath about how the surprise wasn't worth the trouble.  She yelled out to a man just coming around a corner.

"Dave!  FD!  Now!"

The man nodded, turned right back around, and darted off, leaving the boy and woman to hold up the girl in her pre-Change daze.

Dave returned moments later, followed by a man in a lab coat and black jeans.  He took one glance at Kate and let the way to the larger Change Chambers.

"R-Class, MB-Sub-Class, D-Type.  Not sure on Sub-Type."

Jake was a bit confused.  He wasn't familiar with the MB Sub-Class.  R-Class was for reptiles, but that was about as much as he could understand of the FD's assessment.  M-Class was for mammals, A-Class was for avians…  Wasn't F-Class for fish and I-Class for insects?  Something along those lines, if he was remembering right…  And A as a Sub-Class meant aquatic, F meant flight…  He couldn't remember the others.  But D-Type?  He only remembered C-Type, H-Type, and O-Type.  He knew there were a few others, but try as he might he couldn't remember.  After a few moments he gave up trying to figure out what her Altered Form would be.

It was only a few minutes before they entered a huge Change Chamber.  It was completely bare but for a mat on the floor in the center of the room, walls painted a start white.  The woman helped Jake get Kate on the mat, stepping back quickly.

"Do you want to stay with her?"

Jake blinked.  What kind of stupid question was that?!

"Of course!"

The woman smiled calmly at him, holding up her hands to placate him as she explained her questioning him.

"Relax, relax.  We do get those that are sacred of, or disgusted by, Changes.  Standard procedure to ask.  Just a quick word of advice.  If you see anything that looks strange or dangerous, get back.  We'll be monitoring from outside, so don't worry about what to do if something goes wrong."

Jake nodded dazedly as David, the FD, and the woman left, shutting the door after them.  For a moment there was silence.  Jake turned to Kate and knelt by her side, brushing her bangs from her eyes.

He jerked his hand back a second later; she was burning up!  Well, elevated body temperature wasn't uncommon if a Change was imminent.  He shifted a bit uncomfortably, wondering what he should do.

"Jake…?"

He started at the sound of his name, staring at Kate.  Her eyes were still glazed, but she seemed to be seeing him.  He smiled at her.

"Hey, Kate.  Got to your place and found you glowing."

Kate stared blankly at him for a few moments, and then blinked slowly, questioning, "Change…  Center…?"

Jake nodded, smiling again as he responded.  "Yeah, you're turning blue, you know.  No, it's true!  Well, not vivid blue, your skin's just kinda tinted bluish, but still…  And you've got an elevated body temperature."

Her mind hazy with a bit of pain and a good deal of exhaustion, it took Kate a few seconds to respond, "Big room…"

Jake nodded, wondering why they needed such a large room.  Even if the Altered Form was normally huge, they were rarely at full size from First Change.

"Yeah.  I don't even recognize your Sub-Classification, you know."

After a moment, Kate sighed, looking resigned.

"What'd they say…?"

Jake paused a moment, trying to remember.

"Uhhh…  I think it was…  R-Class, MB-Sub-Class, D-Type, subtype they weren't sure of."

There was silence for several minutes before Kate nodded slowly.

"Okay…  No idea what…  That means…  Do me a favor…?  Help me flip over?  Back hurts…"

Jake hurried to comply.  If somebody asked you to help them into a different position in the pre-Change state, you did it.  No questions asked.  Back pains could mean a shell of some sort, or spines.  A-Class without the FL-Sub-Class or any Class with the F-Sub-Class would probably have meant wings of some sort.  After Kate was flipped over, the silence lasted several more minutes before her eyes closed and she sighed with annoyance.

"Kate?  What can I do for you?"

Common courtesy dictated that one offered any aid possible to those in a pre-Change state.  Being friends since childhood simply reinforced the practice.

Kate just shook her head slowly, her voice a tired mutter.  "Tired…  But can't sleep…  Too quiet…"

Jake smiled.  Kate almost always had music playing, even when she was sleeping.  It didn't surprise him at all that she'd find it too quiet to sleep here in the Change Chamber.  He hesitantly hummed a few lines from a song he knew she liked.

Seeing the faint smile on her face, Jake continued humming brushing her bangs from her face again.  His lips twitched upwards a bit as she moved her head into his hand.  Running a hand gently over her hair, he continued humming, watching her body relax.

"…Thanks…  Feels nice…"

"No problem, Kate.  Just relax.   The Change'll start soon, I'm sure."

She muttered quietly about knowing that, drifting off slowly.

Jake himself was beginning to feel tired some time later.  He wasn't sure how much time had passed, and he didn't particularly care.  He blinked tiredly a few times before starting.

There were blue flames at Kate's fingertips!

He yelped, scooting back as the flames spread, engulfing her entire body.  It was only a matter of seconds before he couldn't even make out her form anymore; the flames had formed a sphere in the center of the Change Chamber.

The flames slowly began to take shape.  Several long moments passed, but the shape was still unrecognizable.  With no warning, the flames suddenly exploded outwards, flaring up and vanishing in an instant.  Jake stared at the creature before him.

Beautiful sapphire-blue scales covered the body of the creature, huge wings rested limply about it, the blue membrane stretched between the fingers almost opaque.  Bone-white claws protruded from the hind paws and hand-like forepaws of the Dragon.

Jake stared at his friend's Altered Form.  While not a rare Altered Form, Dragons were somewhat uncommon.  Still, he knew two or three others with Dragons for Altered Forms.  At least she wouldn't be the only Dragon he knew.

He wondered briefly if she would still be his friend after she awoke.  Then he mentally smacked himself for the thought.  Of course they'd still be friends.

One's Altered Form didn't dictate their status in society, but sometimes people changed for the worse after obtaining their Altered Forms…

Jake was about to approach Kate when he realized she was glowing again.  He watched in fascination as she Changed again, her body being consumed by light so bright he was forced to look away.  When he looked back, his eyes widened in surprise.

Kate had undergone a second Change.  She was still a Dragon, but of an Easter variety this time.  Her body was still the same color blue, her horns were the same bone-white as her claws, and the mane flowing down her back, ending in a tuft on her tail, was a pale sky blue.

He smiled to himself.  His friend possessed two Altered Forms, and both of them Dragons.  More than one Altered Form wasn't unheard of, thought it was a rarer than having a "mythical" Altered Form.  Curiously enough, though, was that most of those with more than one Altered Form possessed at least one "mythical" Altered Form, and more often than not all of their Altered Forms were "mythical."

There weren't many cases of a person having more than two Altered Forms.  To have three or four was incredibly rare and almost unheard of.  And there had never been a case documented and proven of one person with more than four Altered Forms.  Though people trying to fake it appeared in the tabloids relatively often.

Jake smiled again as a soft glow encased Kate.  He watched as she returned to her human form.

Kate's eyes slowly opened, no longer brown.  A deep golden-amber, they stared dazedly around the room.  And her altered eye color wasn't the only change.  Her hair was now a deep sapphire-blue, matching her scales in her Altered Forms.

Altered hair and/or eye color was the most common Marking of a Change, thought patterns or strange symbols on the flesh or skin tinted an unusual color weren't too uncommon, either.  At least her skin wasn't blue-tinted anymore—Jake had briefly wondered if that was going to be her Marking.

He grinned at her as he helped Kate to her feet, letting her lean on him as she got her balance.

The door opened, and the woman from before walked in, smiling kindly.

Jake nodded to her, knowing he'd be kicked o9ut shortly.  Kate needed to learn how to shift Forms, something he couldn't teach her.

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Several Weeks Later

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"A green Phoenix and a Crimson Griffin.  Nice combo, Jake.  Just.  Like.  Christmas."

Jake grinned back at Kate as he shoved her lightly, walking out of the Change Center together.  He, to, had two Altered Forms.  They were told by the staff that multiple Altered Forms were being coming more and more common, even outside of the "mythical" Altered Forms.  Some people were even going through a Second Change years after they first Changed!

"Well, I'm glad you can fly on your own.  Now I don't have to let you sit on my back anymore!"

Jake laughed with Kate, his bright green eyes filled with amusement.  He brushed his newly-recolored blood-red hair from his face as the chatted, heading back to Kate's car.

They did have to drop it off back at her house before going flying, after all.