I was stolen from my planet about two annums after my first shift. I had long since learned how to tame any errant tendencies to shift at the wrong time.
Now, though, despite my greatest efforts, one foot is still a golden hoof.
“Do you know what’s going on?” she asks, her face a mask of worry.
“On my planet, before I was stolen, I shifted with ease. It was effortless.” I glare at the hoof where my right foot should be.
“Shifted?”
“I thought all humanoids could shift. It wasn’t until I was stolen from my planet and thrown into a cell on a slave ship that I realized my people were unique. We shift for the first time on our eighteenth birthday. It’s a day of celebration, a turning point from being a child to becoming an adult.”
“So, you shift into anything? I saw a horse and a dragon and a male humanoid.”
“Most of my people shift into only one thing. Only one in a generation can shift into anything they wish. We call that person an az’rah. I have that ability. My horse and dragon are my primary spirits. It’s my spirit that can shift into any animal I have seen that requires the most control. I have all the abilities of that animal but fully retain my consciousness in that form. Evidently . . .” I get distracted as I feel the familiar itch and burn of wings starting to erupt from my shoulder blades. One dragon’s wing sprouts on the right.
“I’ve always had control. Even at the beginning. This is . . . dangerous.” The cell is small. In my dragon form, I’m huge. Not only can I hurt others if I shift, I could hurt myself. “Call the medic. Have him knock me out.”
One wing is fully extended now, flapping wildly against the metal bars of the cell.
Every person has a unique relationship with their shifter forms. Some fully give themselves over to the animal. Some keep their higher sentience completely. Others, like me, drift in and out of animal consciousness when in equine or dragon form
I have two primary animals I shift into—Ozias, my stallion, and Dranii, my dragon. I feel them inside me as if we’re brothers. I can sense their emotions and desires, though usually not through actual words.
I retain complete control when I shift into anything else. But Ozias and Dranii have been absent for so long, and now I not only have no control over them, I can’t even connect with them.
KJ frantically calls Seneca on her wrist-comm. When he arrives, he’s accompanied by a contingent of males, all heavily armed. I have a fleeting worry that they’re going to kill me. Maybe they should.
KJ
“Those are stun guns, right?” I ask, then back down the short hallway toward the only other cell in this small brig.
“Yes,” Sextus says as he orders A’Zul, “sit!”
As soon as the big green male with the ungainly wing and an equine leg manages to maneuver his ass onto the bed, Sextus shoots him with the stunner. He slumps over and fully returns to his green form. Just as the last time I watched this, he shimmers in and out of that gorgeous golden form for a brief moment. How can any being be that beautiful?
Thantose enters at a jog and barks, “What the fuck is going on here?” After he gets report, much of which was given by me, he says, “The safety of my crew is my top priority. More important than amassing more credits than I’ll ever need in five lifetimes. More important than the Ataraxia herself.”
He pauses, pulls up something on his wrist-comm, and watches for a moment.
“I wasn’t able to see what happened in your cabin earlier, we don’t have cameras in there for obvious reasons, but I just watched a replay of what occurred here. I don’t even want to speculate about his ability to shift into other forms. Science wasn’t my strength in school, I was too busy playing klempto, but to me it looks like if he had fully shifted, one of those claws on his wings might have torn a hole in my hull.”
He tips his head and thinks for a moment. “He’s putting everyone on board in danger. I can’t allow it.”
My stomach feels as if it just turned to concrete, fell out of my body and through the floor. He’s going to cast A’Zul into space?
“I’m going to keep him sedated until we get to planet Kallion. I have a cabin there. It’s old and I guess if he shifts and crashes through the walls we’ll just have to rebuild. If this dragon can breathe fire, maybe he could burn it to the ground and we can collect the insurance.” He taps his index finger on his chin as if he’s thinking through all the possibilities for larceny that A’Zul presents.
“You’re going to leave us on that planet?” I ask, imagining all the terrifying things that could happen to us in an inhospitable place.
“I said I would drop him. Are you volunteering?”
“I can’t let him go alone.”
“I figured you’d say that. My family owns a vacation home there because it’s a beautiful planet. My mate Brin has spent time there. She loves it. Says it reminds her of home. Talk to her about it. I think you’ll feel more comfortable after she tells you how safe and calm it is.
“We’ll make sure you have plenty of food, weapons, and a long-distance comms unit. We’ll keep in touch and come get you when he’s stable. If he’s stable. I can’t do this any other way.”
He gives me a compassionate look, his brown eyes warm. I understand him better now. He’s a softy. He’s
