Dragon girl's fire

1

Kestrel felt her bones grinding and changing. She watched the stopwatch eagerly as she awaited her transformation to be complete. 3 seconds! I changed even faster than last month! Her smile broadened even more when the sun peaked from behind clouds to warm her white scales. This is just a great day to be a dragon shifter! Kestrel continued to lay in the warm mountain creek until the sun had begun to fall under the treetops. The  sun would soon be gone and the full moon would be her guide home. She arose from the water and stretched her powerful wings. Rustling leaves stirred along the thick brush of the bank. The snarls of agitated werewolves warned her to leave their territory. Kestrel dipped her head in apology to her shifter neighbors. I'm sorry and I will leave your home. The alpha male signaled his pack to allow her to leave. She carefully took her backpack from a tree branch before spreading her large wings. Kestrel felt so alive as her own strength propelled her into the vast sky. Her dragon spirit swelled in pleasure. She was powerful and she knew it. Pride burst from her large jaws in the form of flames. Sadly, the flight home ended too soon. Mom will be mad that I went to the creek again. I guess I'll just have to learn how to swim. Maybe the pack can teach me how to. Kestrel smiled at the idea of her pack. They were all shifters like herself. The pack consisted of werewolves, werecats, and of course nemarians. She was a nemarian, and very proud of it. Nemarians were dragon shifters. They weren't as common as the others. As her claws crunched on her gravel driveway, she shifted back into her human form. Unlike other shifters, nemarians somehow absorbed their clothes. Her animals sensed her return and whinnies, meows, and barks filled the air. Her dogs ran to greet her first. Honey, Peppers, and Sparkplug yipped happily.

"Race ya" she laughed. Shouldering her backpack she took off up the long driveway. The two pups, Peppers and Sparkplug, easily beat Kestrel and Honey in the race.
Kestrel's mom wasn't overly angry when she smelled water and algae on her daughter. In fact, she wasn't paying attention to her at all. Odd... Kestrel thought until she remembered she had brought her report card home that day. Her mother was cooking something delicious as she read the papers.

Mrs. Crow paused in her multitasking to smile at her daughter. "Good job" was all she said but it still made Kestrel happy. Her mom didn't compliment a lot so even a small acknowledgement meant she was proud. She recognized from the smell that her mom was cooking steamed rice and vegetables with several pounds of peeled shrimp. Her mother handed her a bowl as her mouth watered. Shrimp was Kestrel's favorite meat but it was a rare treat because they lived so deep in Pennsylvania's Appalachian mountains. The sun had already set and that made her sleepy as much as the fact that she had eaten two pounds of shrimp and a pound of rice and vegetables. Shifters eat a lot (especially nemarians and werewolves). She helped clean the dishes and put them away before heading to bed. She climbed up and into her bunk bed, followed by her asthmatic cat Vixen. The purring of the cats chest and the sounds of owl hoots in the forest ended her day in a blissful sleep.