Shades of Grey

SHADOWS TRIBAL CAMP— MAY 1844

I said nothing more of the matter during breakfast, eating quietly and watching the many rituals and sacred dances of the tribe while my mind silently wandered to what could possibly have happened that night twenty years ago.

“Miss Echo?”

I looked up at the chief’s voice and noticed that the hall was now quickly emptying, the citizens making their way back to the wooden metropolis and to their daily lives.

“Yes?”

“It is time for your instruction to begin. If you will follow me, we will take you to the training facility!”

The chief stood with excitement and I gave Forma a look of trepidation.

“His tone frightens me,” I remarked as we followed.

“Oh please, Grey you’ve faced so much already, what could these people possibly do to educe fear from you?”

She gave me an encouraging grin. I smiled back receptively.

The chief led us through the crowded city and we approached a particularly tall multi-leveled building made of wood and clay. We followed the chief to a doorway in the shadows under the wooden staircase leading to balconies above. He then knocked twice on a wood doorknocker that resembled a fierce dragon’s head. After a few seconds, the door slid open a crack and a man with a face that resembled a weasel looked at us inquisitively. His huge eyes immediately widened when he beheld me and seconds later, the door swung open.

“Admirers,” Forma remarked with a reprimanding ‘tsk’ sound. I snorted to myself and followed the chief as he entered the dark chamber. The lights suddenly flicked on, brighter even than those that had been shone in my face while under interrogation in the Murias Asylum.

“Welcome to your training Newling!”

When my eyes adjusted, I looked around at the facility. Made of redwood, mahogany and stiff pine, it looked to be a large dojo encased in an obelisk with a ceiling that could have possibly fit the Mindanao Trench inside, reaching so high that I could not see the physical end. The floors were made of a strong bamboo and pourous clay that created a springboard effect ideal for combat training. The far walls were a dark, earthy green and posts from evergreen trees supported a viewing box to the far right of the room overlooking the enormous dojo. Forma sat in the front row next to the chief with an interested look on her face.

“What is that expression?”

“What? I’m interested!” she replied with a sparkling maliciousness in her eyes. “You fighting a man who looks like a large rat? It’s almost funnier than when you fought Liam in year four and he wound up in a coma for seventy-two hours.”

I laughed at the memory and rolled my eyes, turning to the weasel man who stood on the opposite end of the dojo.

“Ah yes, the daughter of Echo has at long last come to her training…” said the weasel man with a smile of excitement.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I am Gefahr, the greatest trainer of Graylight Dragons ever to grace the earth. Remove your shoes, your coat and your weapons, Newling,” he commanded with a swift air of narcissism.

I was offended by the term ‘Newling’ but I bit my tongue and obeyed.

“Well? How shall we begin?” I asked.

Without any warning at all, Gefahr suddenly leapt through the air with a long halberd, coming straight for me. Instinctively I leapt to the side, rolling twice along the ground as Gefahr landed, the halberd piercing the ground where I had stood seconds before.

“You said no weapons!” I exclaimed, standing with caution.

“The mark of a strong warrior is the ability to fight an armed opponent when he himself is unarmed!”

Gefahr swung the halberd towards me, but I easily leaned backwards and avoided the blow. He slowly began to walk toward me and we began an intricate dance around the dojo: Gefahr swinging the blows and me easily dodging them.

“Is this all the training you have to offer?” I asked as I flipped backwards, kicked off of the wall and flipped forwards once more, kicking Gefahr to the floor and landing with my foot on his chest. “…because I’m finding this a bit easy,” I said smugly. Forma laughed loudly.

Gefahr laughed and tossed the halberd behind him. He then swiftly transformed from the meek weasel man whose blows I had easily avoided into a tall, powerful Graylight Dragon that encompassed the entire room, roaring and exhaling a long stream of fire towards the obelisk above.

“So that’s why the ceilings are so high…” I remarked through a gaping mouth as I stepped timidly backwards, my cocky bravado gone.

“Transform!” called the chief.

I looked back to the chief in the stands, which was a prime opportunity for Gefahr to sweep his massive tail around and propel me across the dojo into one of the mahogany support columns. I fell to the floor and crouched on my hands and knees while my lungs worked to reinflate.

“Transform!” called the chief again.

“I don’t know how!” I countered, leaping over Gefahr’s tail once more. Forma responded this time.

“Grey, you can’t think about it, just allow the Dragon inside to come through!”

Forma’s voice was quickly drowned by a great roar from Gefahr, who lowered his enormous head to mine, staring at me with haughty Dragon eyes.

“Change…” he urged in a low, growling voice.

Staring at Gefahr, I did my best to do as Forma had advised…to release my human self and to allow the Dragon inside to emerge. The witch doctor had woken it, all I had to do was let it go. It was a simple enough concept: I just had to put it into practice.

However, nothing happened. I tried very hard for several minutes and all I heard was a low snicker from Gefahr’s mighty Dragon mouth.

“Let go,” he urged as he smoothly changed back into the weasel man. “You must release yourself…”

The dojo became very quiet. I felt everyone’s eyes on me as they waited to see whether or not I would be able to do it. I had to do it. My father was one of their most respected warriors; if I really was half Dragon then this should come as naturally as breathing, shouldn’t it?

I choked as something began to shift in my chest. My heart began to palpitate, pushing the blood faster through my body. My knees buckled as I became light-headed and I fell to the floor, groaning as something trembled inside me.

“Grey!”

I heard Forma fly from the stands to my side, but Gefahr’s harsh voice stopped her from touching me.

“Stop! She must fight through it on her own!”

Forma crouched next to me as my breathing attenuated into pathetic gasping wheezes. I opened my eyes and looked to Forma, who gasped in shock as she beheld me.

“That’s it! Grey, your eyes are already changed! Keep going!”

I looked down, listening to my breathing as it became deeper and darker with each inhale. The three others in the room were on the edge of their seats, waiting to see…

A sharp pain shot through my right arm and then all was quiet.

“Well, any progress is progress,” muttered Gefahr.

I sat back on my knees and looked to Forma, whose expression I could not read.

“What?” I asked, gasping at the dark asperity of my voice. I reached up to touch my throat with my right hand, flinching in shock when I saw that I no longer had a human arm: I had a dragon’s claw. My skin had turned from flesh to hard scales and several stiff bony protrusions ran straight up my forearm in a pattern of predatory strength. No sooner did I behold the change in my arm than it slowly began to fade to normal.

“Are my eyes normal?” I asked, noting that my voice had lost the raspiness. I tried to stand, but my body protested. Every muscle burned with soreness and I felt the breath fighting to enter my lungs.

“Yes,” Forma answered, helping me stand.

“You have done well for your first time. Most Newlings can barely manage to change their eyes and you managed to change your eyes, your voice and your arm. We shall meet again tomorrow and continue,” Gefahr said, picking up his halberd and immediately leaving the dojo.

“That was fantastic, Miss Echo!” clapped the chief as he hurried over to us. “You will do your father proud!”

He clapped his great, heavy hand on my shoulder, which knocked me off of my weakened knees and into Forma’s arms.

“Oh, right,” the chief said in an apologetic tone. “You should go rest. The first session is always a bit jarring.”

I nodded. “Thank you, chief.”

The chief gave a curt nod and Forma and I turned to leave, emerging onto the crowded streets once more.

“You did really well,” Forma encouraged. “It was your first time transforming biologically. You mustn’t be too hard on yourself.”

“I just feel as though they were expecting me to change easily the first time, like some sort of prodigy,” I confessed as we traversed the streets and approached our room.

“Nobody makes a complete change the first time. I asked the chief. And you heard what Gefahr said! Most Newlings manage only to change their eyes and you changed your eyes, voice and arm!”

I nodded as we entered our room and Forma helped me to the bed. I sank into the covers, revelling in the gloriously warm sheets.

“I feel terrible,” I confessed, suddenly overcome with nausea. “Was it this bad the first time you transformed?”

Forma sat next to me and offered me a glass of water, which I drank heartily.

“No. The first time I transformed, we only had to change aspects of our own body: hair colour, eye colour, skin colour, the size of our muscles, etc. I didn’t learn full body transformations until year two when we changed into horseflies.”

“And did you feel awful afterwards?” I asked.

“Don’t you remember? I retched on your Witch History essay about the civil unrest in the Mordrigani Witch Clan and spent the next two days resting on a handkerchief in the drawer of your beside table.”

I chuckled, which only made my nausea worsen.

“Oh yes, how could I forget…that tiny pile of vomit…”

Forma laughed.

“Yes, I think I was nauseous after the first four full-body transformations. After the next three I only had mild migraines and after the next two I had muscle cramps. You just need to practice. Your body is not accustomed to making such a dramatic change.”

“Do you think so?” I cried adroitly as my nausea worsened. “Ugh, Forma these people learn this information practically from birth onward and I’ve only just started!”

“Oh shut it. Don’t be such a child. Maybe I can help you later. I learned some breathing techniques in school to help ease the change.”

I could no longer speak, for fear of losing the contents of my stomach if I dared open my mouth, so I only nodded.

“Alright then. We’ll practice after breakfast tomorrow.”

“Uh,” I said quickly. “Maybe right before breakfast.” I punctuated this with a dark moan and Forma nodded.

“Oh right. That’s probably best.”