The Radiant Rangers

Chapter 6

"You're a shapeshifter!" yelled Juliet in amazement.

Juliet was right. Danielle was a shapeshifter; she possessed the ability to change her physical form into any animal or creature.

"You guys have jewel's like me..." Danielle said. A shy, emotionless expression remained on her face and she pulled down the neck of her sweater and pointed to the center of her chest. In the sun rays shining through the forest leaves, a vivid yellow jewel glowed brilliantly in the rich sunlight.

All the doubts that Cynthia had earlier had disappeared. It all made sense to her now, why the yellow beam had appeared so close in her dream. The wolf, who was now a human, was the yellow they needed. Danielle was the yellow that had been with Cynthia and Juliet the entire time. Danielle was the yellow host. Cynthia was unsure of why Danielle was in the forest. Danielle's clothes appeared casual, they had the ubiquitous look that all the university girls had. Despite the over sized yellow sweater and plaided skirt, she had on fuzzy brown boots with no signs of dirt or mud on them.

"I'm Cynthia VonCharmaine." said Cynthia reaching out her hand. "I'm the red host." Danielle looked down nervously at Cynthia's hand and shook it with a loose grip. Her eyes wondered up from Cynthia's red vans, which were covered in mud, to Cynthia's soft face and gave a small smile. Cynthia noticed that Danielle's hands were exceptionally small compared to hers. With a nod, Cynthia stepped back and allowed Juliet to do the same.

"Oh my gosh!" said Juliet in excitement. She ran up to Danielle and grabbed both of her hands aggressively. Danielle's eyes widened at the sudden movement that startled her. "You were the wolf that I was with!" Juliet exclaimed. She shook Danielle's hands with a firm grip and pulled back. "I'm Juliet Adams and I'm the toughest fighter here. I also have the same jewel as you, but blue."

Cynthia watched as Juliet made her introduction to Danielle. Juliet's voice was so much louder than Danielle's. Juliet was always the loudest voice in the room wherever she was. In this case, she was probably the loudest person in the entire forest. Her conversations were buoyant and intended to be heard. Juliet was like that, and always in tomboyish clothes that never showed her shape. Watching the two of them interact was entertaining.

"Oh yeah..." spoke Danielle softly. "I was in the forest taking a walk around enjoying the weather...when all of a sudden I heard loud screams. I figured that someone was in danger... so I turned into a wolf and chased after the sounds."

Juliet knew that Danielle was talking about her. "Oh," she started, her face turned red. "You must have heard my transformation when I reacted to this dumb jewel." She looked over at Cynthia who stood with her arms crossed listening. "Cynthia basically kidnapped me from my house and took me here where my powers wouldn't do damage to anything in my neighborhood." She chuckled. "Nobody knows I have powers besides Cynthia man."

Danielle nodded. "When I got closer to the screams I saw strikes of lighting come out of the sky and they hit the ground around me. I knew it wasn't a thunderstorm. There were no clouds in the sky, so I thought it might have been a villain of some sort trying to cause damage to the forest."

She paused. "Then I saw you." Danielle pointed to Cynthia. "I saw you, leaning over Juliet and putting out patches of fire that the lighting had left behind. You had ice powers and I saw your eyes glowing a vivid red." She paused. "You do have ice powers correct?"

"Yes," said Cynthia. "I also have blood powers, as gross as it sounds."

"You have two abilities?" asked Danielle. She adjusted her glasses, "That's odd because I only have one..." the white's of her eyes became a solid yellow leaving brown irises in them. Her body underwent another transformation and she turned into a cat. Juliet gasped in awe. The cat was a delicate shade of grey, so soft that even in the broad daylight she looked like a shadow rather than a feline.