Book IV: Avi Dragon

Avi Dragon Padawan

Avi's eyes watered instantly. His diminutive wife had to hold him by the shoulders, until he could find his balance with two heavy wings sticking out of his back.
   "Arms next, I think. Then you don't have to stand upright. Think you're up for it?" Angel hated putting him through this, but he'd literally asked for it.
   He nodded, though it was more of a reflex than a reply.
   She popped out the latch in her own elbow, waiting for him to find his before she'd flick out the telescoping bone tubes. His mother had to prompt him to Look for the latch. He still couldn't See it, which frustrated him.
   Angel popped her elbow back into place and gently took his arm in hers. She turned his arm the way hers had been, asked him if he could See the latch yet.
   He tried. He really did. He had to shake his head, tears splattering the soil at their feet.
   "Do you still trust me?"
   "Just do it," he said through gritted teeth. It felt like failure to have her pop his elbow latch for him, but the sweet taste of success quickly followed. While he couldn't See the hinges and latches, he caught onto the mechanics of the hollow tubes immediately. He'd played with enough toy lightsabers to get the idea.
   "Now try the other side," she coaxed.
   "Don't forget to lock it," his mother reminded him.
   He found the lock by accident, just turning his arm--no, foreleg--to Look for it. The other arm was just as uncooperative as the first, but he remembered how she'd twisted it just so, and flicked. No, no, it was... a twist, a bump, and a flick.
   "Sweetie, you really need to feel what you're doing. If you just mimic what I did, you won't learn how it's done."
   He grumbled, but kept Looking. Then Angel had the bright idea to use the Link to show him what she Saw. After all, that was what made her uniquely qualified to teach him.
   "Oh! Is that what that is?" He could See how to bump the little latch now. Out it popped. Flick! She held the link long enough for him to See how the latch locked into its new position, before dropping it.
   "The legs and tail are more feel than Sight, because they don't need latches."
   "They don't? Then how do they stay in place?"
   Angel twisted and flicked her arms out into forelegs. "You see how my arms are as long as my legs now?" He nodded. "That's why they needed to grow down. If our legs grew down, we'd be lopsided again. From here, they do the weird honeycomb thing to expand up and out."
   "So why do I need to do anything with my legs?"
   Her head tilted to the side, to show he'd made a point. "It's more your feet than your legs. I'll warn you, it stings."
   She stood on the balls of her feet, and waited for him to do the same. Then she went into a sort of plank position, keeping the toes and balls of her feet planted. She had to remind herself, and him, not to flex their toes. They would be fighting the process if they did.
   Their toes cramped, but she urged him to lean into it more. The cramp became heat, and then... snap! Their toes clicked together, from five to three, and popped into the digitigrade alignment.
   He collapsed to the ground, wings limp against his back.
   "Toldja it hurts," Angel gasped.
   "Are you okay?" Shelly asked at the same time. She wanted to go to him, but her hands were occupied with his daughter.
   He struggled to his feet again, determined to make the transition on the first try. "Tail?"
   Angel nodded. "You basically wiggle your hips until the tail just sort of... drops down by itself. Hey, by the way, how's he going to do this in pants? I didn't think about that."
   Shelly tsked at her. "How do you think I Shift with clothes on?"
   "You do?" Angel didn't remember that day, of course.
   "I do."
   "What happens to the clothes?"
   Shelly laughed. "I don't know, it's like the molecules... forget they're supposed to be clothes, until you Shift back? They aren't sentient, so they don't fight you either way. They just sort of... settle back into the form they were in when you Shifted."
   "Oh..." She hadn't known that when she Shifted on the beach. That would've saved her some embarrassment!
   "Okay, so um... just wiggle until your tail drops."
   He kept almost getting it, but shying away. He thought he was going to poop, which Angel thought was hilarious. She reared up on her hind legs and manipulated his hips by hand, right where he was afraid to go.
   His tail dropped down, accompanied by a yelp. He spun around, thinking he'd see a pile of feces, but all he saw was his tail.
   Angel, back on all fours, laughed until her eyes watered. Shelly knew what had happened, because she'd seen other males have the same issue. It was always the boys who thought they'd soiled their pants.
   He wasn't happy being laughed at. Angel shoulder bumped him, a smile lurking around her mouth.
   "Let your head hang down, relax. Your neck should pop out."
   His head dropped, but he was too tense to relax. Angel sat on her haunches, gently pulled his head toward the grass. She turned it side to side, rolled it in circles, trying to get him to relinquish his iron grip.
   She let go with a sigh. "This is what it should feel like." She stood again and let her head loll, her neck getting longer and longer. She showed him, through the link, what she felt. She projected calm at him, for good measure. Almost unconsciously, he relaxed with her.
   "Good! Now comes the hard part."
   He chuckled into the grass. "None of that was the hard part?"
   She laughed. "Maybe it'll be easier for you. I don't know. You have to get more blood pumping into your skull, so your muzzle and horns can pop out. I do it by holding my breath and... it feels like blowing my nose, but nothing comes out?"
   Shelly nodded. "That's about right, yes."
   He raised his head and tried to look at her, but the world felt weird. His chest was pointing toward the ground, but his head was parallel with it. It was hard to wrap his head around.
   Angel held her breath, crossed her eyes for comedic effect, and "blew" into her nasal cavity. He laughed, until it started to deform and warp outward. He had to look away, or he'd never see her the same way again.
   "Focus, my son. You saw how she did it. You're almost there!"
   He bobbed his head once. He took in a great lungful of air and held his breath. He did what she said, blowing out with his nose closed, and... It was terrifying. His vision blurred, and bones shifted. He had to close his eyes against the distortions. If he didn't have Angel in his head, and his mother in his ear, he might never have become a dragon.
   The encouragement became elation, so he opened his eyes. The world looked sharper, more detailed, as though he had a high-end camera aimed at it.
   "If we were going full scale, pun intended, we'd work on growing, but this is good enough for now." Angel beamed down at him, her eyes a merry blue.
   "All right, love. Scales are the easy part. Just give yourself a good shake, like a dog getting out of water. Works both ways, but you've got to think about it. You won't lose your scales if you shake off some water."
   A grin stretched his muzzle. He scrunched up his eyes, hunched down, and shook with all the enthusiasm of a puppy. It was adorable. He remembered his mother's trick with the frill, so he gave his head a swift shake to get his hair to stand up and take shape.
   Angel checked him head to toe, telling him if he needed to shake a leg or tail to flip some scales out, until she pronounced him a complete dragon.
   His eyes opened, and the first thing he saw was his angel-dragon, in her final form.