‘Good, let’s start,’said Facit through their mindlink. ‘What we going to do first isstudy shapes; simple ones at first and then later, more complexones. You will need to have a clear metal image of what you wish tochange into, including the detail. To help you along I brought withme a supply of modelling clay and a set of shapes ranging from thesimple, such as a ball and cube, to the more complex. You willreproduce them using the modelling clay and in so doing, practicegetting a mental image of them. We can also use items found in yourworkshop for both shape and texture.’
Finally, Facit felt Robwas ready for the next stage in his training.
‘There are two ways toshape shift and we’ll try both. One will teach you aboutappearances, and the other will hopefully give you an insight intobehaviour. The first is to use the polymorphic shape change magic.Curiously, it is outlawed here in Panmagica but still used widely,I suspect.
‘The other way is touse a magic ritual allowing us to swap the spirits between yourbody and another. This is outlawed almost everywhere, as thereligious groups oppose it. However, it allows you to truly feelthe body of another creature, thinking as it thinks and feeling asit truly feels. I’m hopeful that by trying both ways you will getthe feeling of how to initiate a shape change. It will then be upto you to mentally control when to change.’
Rob couldn’t fault thelogic, and so agreed to the experiments. They first used thepolymorph shape change method. Facit came out of his new home andRob used the magic from a scroll, concentrating on imitatingFacit’s form, which wasn’t too hard. He looked like a two pace widepink puddle of goo, or a super large egg out of its shell. As themagic took hold for a brief moment, Rob noticed that his mindbecame flooded with a mental template of a Logicon; a perfect metalimage was created which faded as he transformed into goo.
He pondered on this fora few moments. There must be a template for the shape of creatures.The shape change magic somehow copied it and applied it to him. Hedecided he would have to think about that in detail sometime, butfor now he had more practical problems.
The difficulty lay inhow to move like a slime mould, which wasn’t easy for a newman likeRob, accustomed to relying on legs. He spent two days working atit, but try as he might he couldn’t get the hang of it. Somethingwas missing, and it was Facit who worked out what the problem mightbe.
‘Rob I have noticedthat each time the spontaneous shape changes occur in a part ofyour body, you also become quite aggressive and angry, andsometimes your eyes change colour. I know you concentrate hard toblock it, but have you considered that perhaps you need to be angrywhen shape changing? Perhaps it is a part of your type of shapechanging ability.’
‘I am afraid of losingcontrol when the anger comes. If I lose control and my eyes goblack I can hurt people,’ replied Rob. ‘It is too dangerous. When Iwas a young child I lost control and killed a person. I might harmyou.’
‘I am much harder toharm than you think,’ replied Facit. ‘I will take the risk. Whennext the anger comes don’t block it, but try to flow with it anddirect it.’
They took a break andwaited. It took him a couple of hours, and then Rob felt the angerrise and his arm turned to jelly. This time, instead of trying toblock it, he harnessed the anger, furiously willing his whole bodyto become like his arm and then melt into a puddle of goo, as if hewas using the shape change magic. It worked!
It was a revelation.The anger was the driving force for his shape changing ability. Itwas the missing component. For years he had been afraid of it andblocked it. Now it was no longer an enemy but potentially a friend.He still felt anger, but not blind rage. Perhaps he could controlthis anger and use it rather than fight it. He channelled it intolearning to move like a slime mould and within a few angry minutesgot the hang of it. To celebrate, he slid up the wall, across theceiling and down the over side to the sound of Facit's cheers.
The whole process wascertainly the most exciting thing that he had done for months. Heconcentrated hard on blocking the anger totally, and to his reliefhis body changed back to his newman form. The question was, couldhe bring on the anger then use it to shape change? He thought ofthings that would make him angry, and to his great delight theanger came in a rush and he flowed with it. His whole body changedunder his mental control. It melted like wax into a puddle thenreformed as a slime mould. He was ecstatic.
The one problem hefound now was that the time he could spend shape changed waslimited by the size of his source. In other words he had to usepower from his source to maintain his new shape. When this powerran out so did the anger, and his body reverted to its newmanshape. This could potentially be dangerous, so he developed thehabit of keeping a close watch on his source.
It was strange being inthe form of a slime mould. He could taste the floor, smell the air,feel vibrations and see light through the skin on any part of hisbody. Vision was very poor and mainly sensitive to changes in lightsuch as shadows and movement. Facit explained that in the wild hisancestors had used all their senses to track down prey in theswamps of his home world.
The discovery of thelens was as important to the Logicons as the discovery of fire tonewmans. When his people had accidentally found that light could befocussed through clear resin, then later glass lenses enabling themto see the world with more clarity, they had begun to advanceintellectually.
Facit showed
