[The Sanctuary] Birds Of A Feather...

[Kavala]

Timestamping: Mid-Fall, 513 AV
Continued From: Manipulations of Love

Perhaps being emotional wasn’t helping, but reconstructing her face to look like Akela’s then simply talking to her sister while staring at herself in the mirror like she was sitting in front of Akela was… somehow wrong. Kavala knew crazy when she saw it, and that was definitely crazy. It was easy practice for a morpher though… and shaping one’s face into someone else’s face that looks very similar was not as time consuming as one might think. But it was also cathartic and the Konti knew she needed that cry, one she hadn’t ever had, since Akela had departed for parts unknown and places far and foreign. But from now on she’d promised herself she would stick to safer things.

And safer equated to feathers.

At first, thinking herself all that, Kavala had tried to form a feather springing proudly from her pointer finger on her left hand. Closing her eyes, the Konti cleared her mind which quieted surprisingly fast, and had let the power within her swirl, sending a delicate tendril to the point of her finger where a feather slowly started to grow. When Kavala felt it was ‘done’ she opened her eyes and peered at the feather springing from her finger. Now she’d seen hundreds of feathers and knew their structure intimately, but this feather had no form, very little mass, and waved from the end of her finger limply. Kavala frowned, drew it closer, and seemed to realize the representation simply sucked. There was no proper structure, and everything about it looked ‘off’. Kavala quickly closed her eyes again, seeking the quiet inside, and poured more djed into her finger to try and offset the feather on its tip. She burned precious djed but managed to morph her finger back to normal.

Feather morphing required models. Of that, Kavala had no doubt. Just producing a feather from memory had completely and utterly been cut off as a viable avenue. So instead, Kavala decided to get a bunch of featehrs and learn them intimately before trying again. For this, she turned to her nephew for the undertaking of gathering her some feathers. He didn’t’ seem to mind.

Larik was molting heavily and complaining about it so the timing was great. But Kavala hadn’t minded listening to him itch, scratch, preen and grumble. She’d gathered up several of his feathers, much to his annoyance, and decided that would be her morphing model study project today. The Healer was bored waiting for the baby, and the arcane practice did seem to make things easier in term of weathering the wait. So, going back to her basic anatomy lessons, Kavala was brushing up on Feather Anatomy. She had one of Larik’s huge eagle primaries in her hand and was studying it intently. In her mind, she was labeling parts as well, and reciting what they were used for so when she plied her own magic to her body, she could perhaps produce feathers.

At this stage, I can’t tell you how tedious it seems to me for a morpher to grow feathers on their whole body. Feathers are not easy structures to either understand or duplicate. They are far more than most people realize. And while making a feathered wing the size of my body actually isn’t that many feathers when viewed in that context. But making myself into a bird with feathers at regular intervals all over my body scares the spirit right out of me. So what I’m going to do is approach it like any sane woman would. I’m going to morph and morph and morph feathers over and over again until they are part of my inherent memory and as easy to produce as breathing is without thinking.

I do not know how long this will take me, but it is important. If I ever want to join my nephew in the skies I will need to learn how to do this. And I very much dream of being able to soar with Larik. I think that would bring both of us closer and fill us with a joy that is unexplainable. I know it’s a feeling I get riding with Vanator or casting stone with reimancy. Such things are magical. I need more of them in my life. So I will start with one of Larik’s primaries and break it down into its parts, study that, then be able to reproduce it. I have also collected other feathers.. so I can grow them as well and understand their differences.

Kavala got ready to sketch then, moving the book to a blank page where she could diagram the feather and label it carefully as well as make notes on the various parts. Then once the structure was demystified to her she was going to study the different types of feathers and then finally attempt morphing them . Picking up Larik’s primary, she got busy sketching. She was careful with her detail, making the feather far smaller on her picture diagram than it was in life. She noted the scale off to the side and kept going. Once the feather was sketched carefully, the Konti taking her time to lengthen the shaft and fill out the rachis and barbs, she sat back and drew arrows to the various parts and labeled them with quick explanations.

The feather had three main parts… the Calamus, the Shaft and the Rachis. The Calamus was the part of the shaft at the tip where the feather had been grown from the follicle it originated from in the skin. People often called them quills because that was the part that was used to write with. It seemed like it was held tight into the feather follicle until the bird was ready to preen and shed its feathers to grow new ones. This calamus was opened which told Kavala it had been a shed feather rather than one forcefully plucked. The wear on the feather itself backed up that thought. The shaft ran from the Calamus to the tip of the feather at its most outward end. It was a hollow tube of main vane that held the secondary branching vanes called barbs. The secondary vanes were important because they held the pennaceous barbs, sometimes called hamulus') which connected to each other and to the vanes by hooks on the ends of the barbules that sprouted from the vanes. It was those barbules that interlocked and provided the surface area which allowed feathers to do all sorts of miraculous things.

Kavala didn’t hesitate to label the Rachis too. It was basically the rest of the shaft after the calamus. Rachis’ could be firm but flexible, baby soft or ridged. The more rigid a rachis, the closer to a flight feather it was. Those that were completely inflexible had to be located on the wing in the flight feather lineup.

[Kavala]

Not only did they keep the birds warm, insolated, and at times waterproof. But they provided flight and protection in the form of camouflage. Feathers were also a thing of great beauty, providing the birds with ways to sexually select mates and tell the sexes apart. Oddly enough, most male birds were more colorful than females, which made Kavala wonder if that was why Larik was such a bright molten bronze. Although Lariks were seemingly a plain brown color, when Kavala held them up to the light they gleamed with a golden bronze that was breathtaking to behold. They were, in fact, the same molten bronze color of Larik’s eyes. Kavala smiled, picked up her sketching pen, and carefully finished sketching out the feather, labeling all its parts and then drawing a quick cross section of the barbrules and hamuli.

Feathers had a distinct direction too. The narrower vane of the primary and secondary flight feathers was referred to as the leading or outer vane. The thicker one was the inner vane. Feathers were slightly curved as well, so one could tell where exactly they fit on the body… inner edge or outer edge. The concave side always cradled the body while the outward edge was the convex portion. So you could tell a lot about a feather just by picking it up. Where on the body it was located, what side it came from, and in most cases what species. You just had to know the colorings. Kavala made more notes in her book, surrounding the sketches themselves with labels and hints on feather anatomy.

Larik had been molting and thus and been able to provide a wide variety of feather types for her study. Kavala had expected only eagle feathers, but when she got the bag from him some time after her request, he’d provided a whole huge assortment of them, including some from songbirds and things like woodpeckers and ducks. Kavala hadn’t realized his diet was so varied, but when she thought about it, the hunting made sense to her. She hadn’t exactly told him what she needed them for. Instead she had just politely asked. Without hesitation, he’d given, but not without an odd look first, and not without going overboard as well.

Vanator’s children were both generous and grateful. Kavala saw it every day in how they gave thanks to the family they were living with.

So in moving on, Kavala rummaged through the bag and began sorting the feathers therein into groups that looked alike. She sanded her freshly written page and turned to a blank one, switching from drawing materials to writing materials. First she would sketch, then she'd make a few notes on feathers. Picking up her drawing charcoal, she began working and labeling the types of feathers she saw before her.

She wanted thorough notes on feather types because it seemed in talking about feathers; Kavala was able to get her brain more fully wrapped around how they worked and what they looked like. In doing so, she wanted to be able to produce perfectly suited feathers no matter what the situation was. Kavala could keep dry with waterproofing, warm with down, or even perhaps someday utilize flight by growing an enormous set of wings. That last dream would have to wait at least until she was able to produce a study and that meant having more djed available. Pen poised after being dipped in fresh ink, Kavala begin to classify each feather type and write a little blurb about them.

Unlike humans who have repeats of the same type of hair over and over and over again until they have a fully covered skull, birds and their plumages are made up of a huge assortment of feathers. Each of these feathers varies in size, shape, and design. It is remarkable to think of how efficient feathers are. They provide insulation, which we borrow to fill our mattresses, pillows and covers. They allow the birds to fly. And they provide incredible beauty to the birds which we too borrow from. How many times have peacock feathers inspired our art or poetry? How many times have I seen an Akalak hand one off to a woman he admires and then I see her blush? Feathers are a part of our culture. And in rummaging through what my nephew has brought me in offerings, I can see there are about four different types. People of learning put fancy names on feathers and so I will aspire to describe them thusly as well.


The first and most prominent type of feather birds have are the contour feathers. These are smooth round feathers that hug the bird on the outside providing the first level of defense against weather, predators, and even sunlight which can overheat them. The contour feathers provide coloring and include the flight feathers of which the tail feathers are included. These feathers seem to trap a layer of air between themselves and the birds’ skin which other feathers warm and control the temperature of.

The second type of feathers are down feathers. These diminutive little things lack barbules and hooklets or hamuli and can be crazy fluffy. They are incredibly soft and provide most of the insulation for the birds lying down next to the birds’ skin. Because they have no barbules like normal feathers, the barbs don’t zip together neatly at all. So these messy little feathers look incredibly wild and undisciplined.

The next kind of feathers birds have are the semiplumes. They are a hybrid between contour feathers and down feathers. They give the bird additional form and insulation, but are more structured than down feathers and nestle in the birds’ plumage beneath the contour feathers but above the down.

And finally, the last type are feathers that not all birds have prominently, but are nonetheless important. These filoplumes are very small and have only a very few bards at their tips. They act like whiskers on a cat or dog, giving the bird some ability to determine location or proximity to other things. They also tend to help birds with preening, and seem to tell a bird how to preen and when to preen because they feel’ off to a bird when the bird is being neglectful of its plumage or has feathers that are in need of being re-zipped. I can feel this with my Konti gift among the raptors when they are hooded and the hoods ill fit or they are tethered so they can’t groom properly. Those feather’s sort of itch to them and they scratch them by preening which straightens up the bird’s plumage.

And finally bristle feathers are like reverse filoplumes withe the scattering of bristles on the bottom closest to the calamus. These are mainly for decoration and courtship purposes.

Kavala looked thoughtful when she got done writing. She knew the feathers, and where they belonged in a bird’s plumage. Would that help her be a better morpher now? The Konti took a deep breath, readied her mind for concentration, and set about working on the issue. The deep breathing came first. Slowly inhaling and then holding the breath, she exhaled after a few seconds, letting the drawn out process relax her.

Kavala cleared her mind and continued breathing. Then slowly she reached out her left arm and invited the djed within her to pool there. It gathered like a storm, eager to please, and in her dark meditative mind, Kavala saw her arm blaze to life in the darkness. Though her eyes were closed, she could see the limb as a ghostly gold glow. And it was then, rather than a single feather sprouting from the end of her finger, she decided to feather one whole arm. The healer started with the lowest layer of down feathers, for they had a crude form and needed no real encouragement to sprout up. She visualized them springing from her hair follicles in a pattern much like a chicken would look like when she was de-pinning it for the soup pot. One after another the feather sprang forth, each one forming its structure from the shaft to the wafting barbs.

Kavala smiled. It was working. Studying the models was a trick that trained her brain. After ten chimes, her arm was well downed and she started on the secondary feathers that filled the space between the down and the contour feathers. They came quickly, as her mind seemed to go grasp the structure and form. When they were done, Kavala willed the contour feathers into being. They sprang forth the same deep molten bronze brown as Lariks. A full thirty chimes after she’d began; Kavala opened her eyes to a feathered arm that didn’t quite look right.

She also opened her eyes to see Larik standing in front of her staring. He stared for a full chime then burst out laughing. “If you are going to learn to shape shift into a bird, Aunt, then you’d best understand wing morphology a lot better than you do. You just gave yourself a full set of wingtip primaries all up and down the length of your arm. You can’t do that. You have to understand the flight feathers better than that or you’ll never get off the ground.” He said, amusement coloring his gaze as he stared at Kavala.

The Konti smiled. “Will you teach me?” He smiled, walked forward, and nodded.

“Someone has to, Kavala. Otherwise you are going to embarrass us kelvics.” He said with a handsome grin, one that was full of the pleasure of a teenager finally having something he could do for his aunt that no one else could.

[Kavala]

Larik reached out, caught her arm, and stretched out the ‘wing’ looking at it. He chuckled then ran his hands down the feathers, shaking his head. “Kavala, you need to shift the bone underneath to be that of a bird wing bone, not leave your arm there and just grow feathers. I can tell you were practicing feathers but you don’t want your mind wrapped around this instead of what is proper. Father always says do it right and do it right always. Can you get your arm back to normal?” Kavala nodded, knowing she’d got that down – the reset to a normal body part.

“I’m just proud the feathers look like real feathers and zip like they should.” She said, not exactly defensive, but close enough.

Larik shook his head. “You can’t use them though. You look like one of Marcus Kelvics supposed failed experience.” Larik said, laughing slightly and then taking another look at his aunt. “Since that’s your left hand, I’m going to shift into my eagle form and let you sketch my wings while you get your arm back to a human shape. Then we’ll study all the feathers and what they mean and why they are there, and you can try again.” He said, reaching down and pushing her ‘book’ towards her. She nodded, trying to fold up her feathery arm, and put the book on her lap and picked up her sketching charcoal.

Meanwhile Larik stepped forward, stripped, and shifted into an enormous eagle. The eagle walked across the floor – which was an odd sight – and half hopped up onto the table where Kavala’s stuff was. Then obediently it extended one of its wings and turned so Kavala had a clear view and stood there while she sketched.

Kavala worked quickly, sketching furiously. She was only concerned about the wing at this point, so that’s what she focused on. Meanwhile her arm slowly lost its feathering. Kavala was lucky, for her art or writing could be a form of meditation that helped clear her mind. So by the time she was done with the sketch, she gestured to Larik and thanked him.

A Study of Larik’s Left Wing Feathers - Underside

“I want to sketch your tail really fast while you are in this form too if you don’t mind.” Kavala said, and asked him to turn around. She quickly counted the feathers on his rear and put to paper the reference he had provided her. Larik splayed out his tail beautifully and folded it up as well. When Kavala was done, her nephew shifted back and put his clothes back on.

“What is the primary function of your tail, Larik?” Kavala asked, curious. She wasn’t sure if it was pest control and mood signaling like it was in horses or if there was something else too it.

“A bird uses its tail for steadying its form in flight. It can also use it as a flap to slow down the air speed without stalling. Tails acts like a rudder, the feathers opening and closing like a fan, moving up and down and twisting from left to right. Birds can also 'bank' by tilting one wing higher than the other or by beating one wing slightly faster than the other, and the tail stabilizes this effect.” Larik answered.

Kavala nodded. “That makes sense. I’ve just never given it much thought. But I see you using your tail all the time when you are flying.. splaying it out, folding it up, tilting it.’ Kavala added, smiling. She leaned forward to add a few finishing touches to the sketch in her book of Larik’s tail, noting down the number of feathers and how they were layered.

A Study of Larik’s Tail Feathers

Then Larik leaned forward and pointed at her first sketch. “Let’s label these properly.” He said, settling beside her on the couch to sprawl as she took the book and turned it back to the wing feather page. Larik just began pointing things out, running a dialog that made her scramble to finish.

“From top to bottom inside to out… This is the Scapulars, the middle covert feathers, and the alula, which is basically your bird thumb. Then beneath them are the middle primary covert, the greater coverts, and beneath them the tertial coverts. Then we get to the business end of the wings. The secondaries are here. This is the break right here in the bend which is also called the wing mirror. Then you get to the primary coverts. Kavala, if you loose any of your primary coverts, flying will be a real challenge. If you want to ground a bird, especially a big one like me, clip off all their primaries. We simply cannot fly without them.’ He said, patting her sketch. Then he rose, gave her a grin, and started sauntering away.

“You look at that… think about it, study it… and no shifting your arm sloppily. Do it right every time. And since I know it takes concentration, I’ll leave you alone.” He said, then started off, softly whistling in his own birdish way.

Kavala smiled. “Thanks Larik. I knew there was a reason we kept you around. You can be awfully handy when you want to be. But many many thanks for reminding me to do things right. I love you, hon.” She said with open affection, then set her book down on the table in front of the seating area, propped up so she could easily read it.

Then Kavala sat down to meditate. It was getting easier and easier to do so, having had all the practice lately she’d wanted. And as rested as she felt, Kavala knew she had enough djed to do another wing transformation. So, sitting quietly, her left arm extended with her right arm gently stroking her engorged stomach, Kavala quieted her mind and began to meditate. It was odd, this time, because she could almost feel an imaginary wind on her face like a bird would feel flying. With her eyes closed, the air turned crisp and cold, as if she were high above the earth. And she could feel her arm begin to glow as the djed pooled there unasked, reacting to her subconscious will and not to her conscious thought.

It was slow going, but first her arm and hand bones retracted and reformed. This was not so hard because it was already a step she’d practiced. What was harder was holding the diagram of the wing in her mind and forming the feathers one at a time off the modified arm to layer like a wing actually should look like. The first transformation took most of a half bell, but this second one, conscious of every feather placement, took more like forty five chimes. Kavala knew it could have been faster, but she was still learning, still beginning, and like Larik had pointed out, a perfect shape was a whole lot more important than speed.

So when she opened her eyes and saw that her arm ended not in a Konti limb but in a snow white iridescent bird’s wing, she smiled in pleasure. Kavala didn’t try to waste the djed to revert it back to normal this time. Instead she played with it, studied it, and perfected a few of its features while she was waiting for the magic to naturally decay. She absolutely couldn’t wait, not one bit, for her to have enough power to try a full body transformation. But until then, she’d keep practicing the little things… until they were easy and came quickly.

[Kavala]

The crafting of her arm into a bird wing was a turning point in Kavala’s study of Morphing. To her, anything was possible after that. And it really drove home to her the fact that preparation and modeling was the way to go in morphing. After the magic had decayed away and her arm had reverted, the Konti had gotten on with her normal routine. The restlessness she felt as her pregnancy neared to term was coming to a peak and she knew it wouldn’t be long before her child was born.

It was hard to focus on any one thing and it was hard not to be irritable to people over the most mundane thing. She hated getting up, then trying to sit back down, and sleeping was near impossible even if Rairis stayed over and gave her a big warm body pillow to cuddle. Tasi and Shayru had long retreated, leaving their mother to her own devices because she was prone to erratic behavior and not so much patience with his antics. Kavala couldn’t help it. Her back hurt. Her feet hurt. She was hungry, dirty, tired, and frequently had to pee. Bathing was a chore because although she installed a stone rail to help her get in and out of the bath, it was still hard getting in and getting out, and even worrying about getting clothes off and on.

Just walking outside had become a chore. And frankly the Konti was used to running the beach, working young horses, riding, driving to town, and doing all the things an active Konti should be doing.. and yet she could do none of it. Even in her medical practice, Caelum ha taken over a great deal of it. She was thankful for him and the women all taking rounds in the clinic and helping out. But she itched to get into the fray again, making house calls and saving lives. There just wasn’t much for her to do these days besides wait. And so she was usually in her chambers or in the commons lounging, being irritable, and sometimes so restless she paced rather than gave into the urge to sleep yet again.

Kavala had been sleeping a lot. And as much as she hated to say it, the baby was taking a great deal out of her. Huge now, Kavala didn’t even know if she could make it down to the sea to birth even if she wanted too. She was certain the tunnel leading down was not wide enough to accommodate herself and her stomach. And truth be told, she wasn’t even sure she’d be able to give birth naturally with the size the baby was becoming. He seemed to be larger than Tasi by far because Kavala simply couldn’t fit into anything she wore when she was pregnant with her first son.

And that in itself was irritating. She had taken up wearing Riaris and Vanator’s older tunics, unbelted, with special pants Rosela had made her that stretched in the front. There was nothing nice or fashionable about what she wore though Kavala didn’t’ give it a thought. All she was worried about was the birth and how in the world she was going to pass a child of this size out of her body. But again, rather than worry, she was supposed to take her mind off things by keeping busy…

She worked on The Sanctuary ledgers. She inventoried the kitchens and storerooms with Cadra’s help. She also took stock of the isolation lab and clinics, noting what needed to be done there too. And finally she sat making bandages from cloth that she’d had a cloth merchant deliver from the warrens. But again, there was only so many bandages she could cut and roll before her mind started to go crazy. For one thing, she was cold. The early morning chill in the within had rolled across her while everyone else was still in bed and had made her shiver. If she wasn’t roughly the size of a carriage, she’d have gotten up and made a fire. But getting up was hard work and so she sat there shivering and wondering what she could do about the cold.

The thought came to her that it would be nice if she had a thick coat like the animals out on the grass grew for winter. A bears coat would definitely be perfect, but even something as sleek like one of the Imperial Watchers would be a nice start. Kavala whistled, hoping one was near, and Inavi rose from a shadow by the fire, stretched and trotted over. She was a big female, mostly white, with a brindling of black spots across her face shoulders and rear. One would call her a pinto like they did in the horses, though her coat was in fact primarily white. Kavala patted the couch beside her and Inavi jumped up and curled her massive form up beside the Konti. Kavala could then begin to back comb her fur, looking at the way the hair grew in and checking out the coat patterning. Like all dogs, her fur sprang from single follicles rapidly all over her body. It grew directionally. Kavala also noticed there were three kinds of hair in Invai’s coat.

The first were the primary mixture of coat hairs that made up the topcoat. The outermost layer of hair consisted of this and covered most of the skin surface giving the sweet Imperial her shapely outline. The hairs, called guard hairs, seemed to be thick, long and stick. Kavala plucked one and examined it closely. They were regularly arranged in huge tracks that followed the contour of the body and gave the beautiful dog her smooth appearance. The hair had something of a waterproof quality to it too, feeling waxy and doggish as if it were coated with something that really helped the dog keep itself clean. The guard hairs looked protective too,-and definitely a bit insulating, though not as much as the underhairs looked to be from Kavala’s view.

The Under-hairs formed a sort of secondary coat that consisted of thin, short and soft hairs that seemed to provide softeness and insulation. These hairs, rather than growing from one follicle, like the guard hairs did, seemed to grow in clumps. And as Kavala counted she found on average about fifteen growing from a single hair follicle.


And finally the Tactile Hair grew from Invai’s nose and around her sinus. They were very large hairs and Kavala was sure they acted as sensors to see where the nose could fit into and out of easily. These hairs were long, sticking out thicker than the topcoat or undercoat. Thicker than topcoat or undercoat hair, they have the same structure. Tactile hairs were concentrated on the sides, top and bottom of the head and made up the whiskers, eyebrows and chin hairs.

Once her examination was done, Kavala set about dropping into a meditative trance, clearing her mind of all external worry and then trying to produce about a hundred fold the number of hair follicles on her arm. She was only concentrating on her arm for now, willing djed to coat the area and for follicles to spring up to start growing hair. It worked, slowly and by the time she was done and opening her eyes, she had a patch of thick white fur on her arm almost identical to Invai’s.

Kavala showed the small patch of hair to her dog, laughing as the Imperial Watcher snnifed it cautiously. The dog gave her a lick and settled her big head on Kavala's knee, no longer able to place it exactly in Kavala's lap. Kavala chuckled. Morphing? What would she do without it? The Konti took the time to study her arm, the patch of successful fur, and then closed her eyes and set about filling in fur on the rest of her body.

[Kavala]

Kavala stretched, petted the Imperial watcher bitch that was keeping her company and shifted. She needed to get up and walk a bit or her back would be killing her before long. The baby was quiet so Kavala wandered into the kitchen, not because she was hungry but because she needed something to do. Instead of eating, she pulled forth the knife and utensils bin and organized it. Then she took a towel out and got some soapy water heating over the fire and began cleaning as soon as the water was heated enough to do a good job scrubbing. When the countertops gleamed, she cleaned the table in front of the fire where she’d been propping her feet. Then, still having lots of hot water left, Kavala set the towel aside and began mopping the floor. Then, once that was done and dried, she took a broom and dusted the ceiling for cobwebs. She worked happily, cleaning, until Cadra came in, caught her and got her sat back down on the couch… with her now swollen ankles propped back up. Invai joined her once more, having flopped down by the fire for most of the cleaning spree.

“You’re nesting, Aunt Kavala. I haven’t seen this before, but I’ve read about it plenty. Women, just before their time, tend to start massively cleaning. The kitchen was already spotless, but you sure put a good shine on it. You feeling okay? No labor pains? No restlessness? Caelum said you’d be restless when it got really close.” Cadra said, looking concerned.

Kavala shook her head with a laugh. “No, just a back ache and walking around took care of that. Sitting in one place too long isn’t much good for me. I’m going to go to the lab tomorrow, I think, and see if I can’t mix up some things for the baby to come and for myself as well.” Kavala said, knowing all about diaper rash from Tasival, teething pain, and even gas that infants routinely got. She also needed something for her stretch marks as well. But that would definitely be something to take fill out tomorrow with. And after the plan was made, Kavala felt even better... better enough in fact to sit down and work on some more morphing. Now that she’d mastered hair in patches, she wanted to see if she could morph hair all over her. With that, she wanted to control the color, texture, and consistency of fur too… that way if she was over out in the cold exposed, she’d have half a chance at staying warm. In fact, if she could get good enough at the spell, perhaps she could glyph it into being and give the Sanctuary Folks some survival assistance to put in their survival packs when they went out overnight or looking for say missing foals or lost livestock.

Kavala was excited, so she stroked Invai’s fur again to remind herself what it felt like, and closed her eyes. The big Imperial Watcher bitch settled against Kavala with a yawn, giving her a somewhat perfect model to work with. As Kavala relaxed she realized something important. The meditation was starting to be familiar to her and it was easier to slip into now that she had some sort of special trigger techniques to help her visualize what she wanted her power to do. The burn of the djed within her filled her, but it was harder now, trying to figure out how to change her entire skin into something else. Like changing its color, Kavala just had to think skin, but in this case she wanted the djed to coat her entire body.

The colored lights in her mind, like fireflies dancing in the summer, were something that didn’t’ really fit the meditative needs for this change. Instead, it would be better if one part of her started to glow, expand and coat the rest. Kavala picked her heart. Then to the timing of its beating, she visualized the glow of djed slowly blooming out of her heart like a fountain and spreading down across her chest and lower torso.

The brilliant golden light saturated her body and kept spreading, moving down into her arms, across her elbows and out to her wrists. Each hand was filled with light and warmed with an arcane circulation she’d have been hard pressed to explain to others. The light from the djed glowed and spread lower, wrapping her pelvis and hips, trailing down her thighs to cover her legs and feet like a second skin. Kavala’s face neck and head were covered as well, the volume thin but completely coating her body. It warmed her immediately and filled Kavala with a sense of purpose. Her entire body relaxed as she accepted the djed’s presence coating her. It was a heady feeling, one that made the use of the magic seductive like it whispered sweet words into her ear… “Why had it been so long.. why hadn’t she used it fully before now? It missed her... it loved her… it longed to be used.” The Konti sung with the power, wanting to feel it all over her forever.

And because of it, the sweet whispers, it took her a lot longer to concentrate on what she wanted, making the djed far harder to task. She coaxed it, with one hand in the black and white imperial watchers hand, into growing fur… three types… the long guard hairs, the shorter insulating fur, and the feelers that would spring from her face like a dogs whiskers. Kavala sweated, broke out with perspiration, and quietly fought to get the fur settled as her skin shape shifted and sprouted the thick stuff. Finally, when she opened her eyes she could feel it all over her… on her nose, on her ears… between her toes… even the backs of her knees. It tickled but was also deliciously warm. Around her gill slits it was almost painful because the sensitive skin there was unused to anything but delicate scales wrapping around the breathing organs. Kavala released her hold on the dog’s fur and opened her eyes slowly. She glanced down at herself and her lips parted in a soft sigh of startlement. She was aiming for this, true, but she wasn’t expecting the sensation of a blanket of warmth to envelope her immediately. Fur was comforting. Fur was warm. It was like nothing she’d ever felt before. She brushed the fur on her arm, which was a soft pearly white, and flinched when she brushed it the wrong way backwards. It was almost painful, the nerves newly grown into her skin. She smoothed the coat the right way and almost felt like purring.

Standing up, Kavala wiggled her now furry toes and turned around slowly, stroking her hands down her thighs under her clothing. All she was wearing was an oversized nightshirt, one of Riaris’ tunics that had worn too much for him to be seen around town in it. Kavala slipped it over her head and examined the rest of her. Fur swirled around her definitely in a pattern that concealed most of her form and left her warm and incredibly comfortable. Kavala wondered what Riaris would think if he saw her now or if he’d be quietly disturbed about the whole thing. Tilting her head back, Kavala grinned and picking up the tunic walked to the bathing room to see herself in a full length mirror. The dog got up as well, padding her giant form beside Kavala, tilting her head and suddenly finding her mistress’ appearance utterly strange.

It was even stranger looking at the silvered glass. Her facial features were the same but somehow tempered and muted under the fur that covered her face. Only her lips and the inside of her nose was bare. Around her eyes there was fur as well, making her look inhuman and slightly scary. She ran her hands over her face, down her head which had the same length of fur as well – no more long silky Konti hair – and across her back where the hair was the thickest.

Kavala smiled, stifling a yawn. She definitely was going to curl up and see what sleeping inside a fur cloak made of her own skin would feel like. So the Konti headed back to her chambers. She tossed the tunic aside when she got to her quarters and climbed up on the big bed. She burrowed into the covers, Invai hot on her heels. Other dogs joined them, loose from the kennels to stay cooler down in the Within. The group of them stretched out, nose to nose and tail to nose and anything in between, like placid siblings of the same species, and fell deeply asleep, Kavala’s still unborn child the only thing between them.

Continued In: [The Menagerie] Practicing Medicine And Morphing

[Taylani]

XP Award!

Kavala:

XP Award:

• +5 morphing
• +3 writing
• +4 drawing

Lore:

• Feathers: More complex then what they appear
• Feathers: Three main parts, Calamus, Shaft, and Rachis
• Morphing: Must understand the physics of flight before morphing feathers will do any good for flying.
• Birds: Use their tail during flight for steadying, speed control, and steering.

Notes:

Comments :

These are comments.

TAYLANI