Disclaimer: I will never own any of the characters of Tamora Pierce but I will always own my characters.

A/N: Hello. It’s me again. Here’s chapter seven. Sorry for not updating sooner, but I was in a writer’s block. It sucks. But here it is, like I promised.

Chapter 7: Transformation

I avoided Katsu for the rest of the week and a half. It was not an easy feat I tell you. I had to keep my scent hidden as well as my aura. I also had to keep backtracking and going around because he was either in the hallway or a room in the hallway I was going to go down. I needed time before I confronted him. I stayed and toured the castle with my friends instead.

We had a great time at the practice grounds. Adianna’s guide, Corman, and Maelin’s guide, Jashkal, showed us some moves that they knew. In return we showed them moves from our homeland. We had so much fun that Adianna and Maelin ended up in the guys’ arms and I ended up in my room, a little moody, but happy at the same time. Grinning at myself I got ready for bed and laid down in it. I stared at the ceiling, thinking. I had my next day all planned out... that is if nothing came up.

Next Day

I knew the whole palace by now, so I decided I was going to visit the garden once more before our training began. I was just enjoying the scenery by myself when his scent filled my nose. I froze and looked around. He was lying shirtless under the tree I sat under the first time. I was about to leave when I saw that he was asleep. A thought came across my mind. I believed I could accomplish it before he awoke.

Stealing up to him, I took out my paints and easel. I opened my pink first and dipped the first brush in. Grinning like a fool I painted his cheeks pink. His eyelids became bright red, lips a blood red, and I outlined his eyelids in black. Looking at his chest, my breath stopped. Forcing myself to look away, I take a deep breath and dip a thick brush into my big black inkwell. With glowing eyes, I painted the outline of my family crest on to his chest and colored it in; a sword pointing downward stabbing through a rose head and a venomous snake wrapped loosely around it with an open deadly mouth.

It was too good to pass up; I painted him on my easel while he was still painted. It was everything I could do to not laugh. I dried it as fast as I could and paced it in the middle of all my painting within my glass case. I now had blackmail material.

I put all of my painting stuff back into my bag as fast and quietly as I could. Taking in a deep breath, I stood, put the bag on my back and turned to leave. I got about two feet away when there was a hand on my shoulder. My back stiffened and I whirled around into golden eyes and the ridiculous face. I couldn’t help it... I laughed. The pressure was too much; and I couldn’t stop laughing.

He didn’t seem to get what I was laughing at. Then it dawned on him that it was he that was making me laugh. He threw my arm away from him and strode over to the little pool of water and looked at his reflection. His eyes widened in surprise and he looked over at me but I had taken my chance and took off out of there like a bat outa Hell. I was in my room with the bolt already hit home by the time he washed it all off. I then took the painting out of the glass casing and into my hidden shelf within one of my desk draws. (A/N: Like the one Elizabeth has in Pirates of the Caribbean.) He will never know. I will have to make copies of it later.

Later that Day

I decided I was going to go visit the animals within the menagerie. I love animals; wellI guess it had something to do with being able to speak to them. I visited all of the animals’ the monkeys, equines, feline, lupine, so on so forth. I believed that the marmosets were the funniest ones of all of the animals, always joking around. I visited the giraffes; they were really cool with their long necks. Next I visited the... hyenas? Yeah, that’s it, hyenas. They were cool creatures with females as their leaders; Sasha was their leader whom was also their sister.

The wolves and the tigers were my favorite animals. The wolves with their calmness about everything and the tiger with their restless fierceness; that was how my inner self felt. With them, I felt a kind of peace overcome me. When I saw my mother again, I am going to ask her for the Old Scrolls. I will learn how to create immortals and make some of my own; a wolf like creature whose body was built like a tigers but leaner so that it can run faster and go for days, the head, shoulders, tail, and water resistant fur of a wolf with a tiger’s stripes. I would also give it the wings of an eagle with the cats ability to see in the dark and to speak human along with it’s own language.

When I visited the wolves, I sat with them and ran my fingers through their thick fur. They were beautiful, slick, gray, strong and smart creatures. Sitting there with my hand on their pack leader’s head, I closed my eyes and let my mind drift. I found myself somehow at my center and “stared” at it a moment, then “grabbed” some of my wild magic and “took” it up with me. My fingers that were on the wolf’s head started to tingle and my eyes shot open and looked at them.

I took my shifting hand off of his head and brought it close to my face. It started to grow silvery fur all over it. I could hear my bones shift and crunch; some elongating and some shrinking but all of them were warping. A tail sprouted out of my backside and I felt my ears warp as they travel up to top of my head as wolf ears and my nose stretched out into a snout as my head twisted into a wolf’s elegant one.

I got up, shook myself, took a step and fell on my face. The wolves noticed my change and barked their approval and encouragement. I got up and slowly took one step at a time until I got the hang of walking as a wolf. I then painfully learned to jump and run. I soon graduated to leaping as I ran. My ice blue eyes glowed in happiness.

A thought then crossed my mind. I ran over to my clothes that had fallen off and took them into the little forest that was planted specially for the wolves.

I concentrated on my normal self and slowly transformed out of the wolf body and into my regular youkai body. It left me a little fatigued but I got dressed as fast as I could. Saying a quick goodbye, I ran out of their habitat and lock the gate behind me.

I came upon the tigers’ cage and came up to the pride of tigers laying deep in their jungle inhabitance. I lowered my eyes and bowed my head to them so that they would know that I meant no harm. I went up to their leader and looked him in the eyes. “May I try something with my magic on you?” The great albino head cocked to the side, meaning that I may.

Resting my hand on her head, I went to my center again and pulled up a tiny bit of my magic. My hand started to tingle again and I pulled it away and watched it twist and warp into a silver tiger paw. Again I felt that crunching, twisting sensation throughout my body as I became a tiger.

The tigers grew curious and crowded around me. I slipped out of my clothes and stood up, a proud and beautiful beast. I slowly took steps as a tiger like I did as a wolf. It was a little easier because I had some practice as a four footed animal. Again I relearned how to run, leap and run and leap at the same time. The tigers then showed me how to climb and to jump onto something way above me.

I grabbed my clothes, deformed, and got dressed again. Giving their leader a brief hug, I said goodbye and rushed out of there. I visited all of the animals and did the same. The weirdest one I transformed into was the giraffe; I had to learn how to do everything different for that form than all of my other forms. It was hard; I fell many, many times. All of my forms were silver bodies with the colors of the stripes or spots of the animal the same as normal. The transformations left me weak in the knees and exhausted. I was practically asleep on my feet.

I stumbled out of the menagerie and started to fall but a force caught me. I opened my eyes a little to see a black feline back. My eyes then closed, I tried to open them back up but I couldn’t. I guess all of my experimenting and learning took more out of me than I thought. I painfully lift my arms to the top of her back and grip her with sore fingers as tight as I could. I then tried to get up on her but I failed and fell. This time arms caught me.

As soon as the arms wrapped around my waist, I fell unconscious. If this is how it feels to be drunk, I never want to drink... ever! A familiar scent was in my nostrils, but I was in the nothingness. No sight, no hearing, and even the scents started to fade out. Thinking to myself in those final moments before true sleep claimed me, next time I wouldn’t use so much magic and space myself out instead of going one from another without stopping to let my body rest. It’s been a while since I had last used my magic and my body wasn’t used to that much power traveling through my body anymore.

Sosonokatsu’s POV

I watched as she stumbled out of the menagerie, I had a feeling that I would find her there. She looked as if she was drunk but looking more closely I saw that it was from magic overdosing. She probably had just learned how to do something with her magic and couldn’t get enough of it. I haven’t MOD in quite sometime, when I learned that the headache you wake up with is worse than any hangover you get for drinking too much.

Her neko mata caught her with her body. Diana slowly brought her arms up to the fire cat’s back and I watched as a little pain went across her face as she closed her fingers. She then started to lift herself up on to her feline’s back; I knew she was going to fall even before she did. She was in her youkai form and I knew that her secret would get out if I left her like this.

I ran up and caught her before she hit the ground. I snaked my arms around waist and pulled her up. She then fell unconscious in my arms. I look down at her slumbering form and pulled her up into my arms side straddle. I then look to her cat and shrug. She was giving me an angry hostile glare.

“What? You obviously can’t fit through the doorway like that, especially with her on your back. I’ll take her to her rooms.”

The cat looked skeptical at first then whirled around and flew off. I believed to Diana’s rooms. I didn’t know if the cat could open the doors but I did know that the door was lock and only Diana knew the password for it. I contemplated breaking the door down but thought better of it. It would be improper.

Getting to her room, the neko mata looked at me, then put her paw on the door and mewed. I turned the knob and opened the door. I walked to her bed and gently placed her in it. Looking at her dress, I decide to leave it on and tucked her in. Giving her a chaste kiss on the lips, I left. Thinking to myself, I wander to my room deep in thought. I know I pissed her off somehow because she has been avoiding me, but I don’t know why.

Translations:

Haku: white

Hanyou: half-breed

Inu: dog

Katana: a type of curved sword that Japanese samurai use, or in this case, Yamani samurai

Kimono: a Japanese out fit that girls wear

Kobudou: fighting in close combat with weapons

Obi: the tie around the middle of a kimono

Sakura: the blossoms of a tree

Sensu: a flip fan used in Japan

Youkai: demon