A Strange Bird

[Hadrian]

31st Winter, 512 A.V.

This was probably a bad idea.

His stomach growled as he hiked up toward the Mirahil Pass, and he thought that fresh meat for the table at the Farson Home would keep the children healthier and help him and his staff prevent the pox from entering their crumbling home. When he found a suitable looking tree a bit off the beaten path, he used one of the earliest models he had committed to memory and morphed Vizyous' hands, a Symenestra's hands. His pale hands became paler, his long fingers longer, and his fingernails seemed to bruise and then grow into powerful climbing talons. Satisfied, he concentrated long enough to Flux some djed through his body to give it a bit of a kick where strength was concerned; nothing superhuman, but at least on par with a more athletic human than him.

These little preparations made, he climbed up the tree to the first major branching, where the crotch of the branches seemed a likely place to leave his things, and the branches thick enough that they would bear his weight. Cursing at the cold, he quickly took off all his clothes, bunched them up, and shoved them into the crotch of the branches. Quickly, he sidled out a bit, and then focused on another, more complex model he had developed over the long time he had known Ethan, the Kelvic lammergeier.

The simple, surface things changed first, those little details he had learned on the small scale before the larger changes became easier. Feathers sprouted from his white skin, black as sin. His teeth protruded, joined with his nose, becoming a black, hooked beak. His eyes changed size and shape, of course, but remained that too pale blue. Gradually his bone and muscle structure, the organs within him, began to change too, until he looked much the same as Ethan, only black, and much larger. He tried to minimize his mass and size, but that was a trick he had not really mastered.

He felt overlarge and foolish, the size of a dire raptor out of Taldera, but he fluffed his feathers for warmth and sidled farther out onto the branch. He cocked his head to look at the sky, but it was overcast and he couldn't be sure how long it had taken.

[Daishira]

The rabbit skittered across the ground, oblivious to its surroundings. Unexpectedly, a great creature pounced on it, securing it firmly within its sharp, piercing teeth. Blood oozed out the entry wounds and soon, after a desperate, yet futile attempt at escape, the rabbit bled to death. The smell of fresh meat filled Daishira's nostrils. The satisfaction of a successful kill accompanied the smell. Best of all, it was all done quietly. The loudest noise from the kill was the landing of paws after the pounce, thumping into the ground.

Daishira's animalistic characteristics overtook his senses and he hungered for more. He knelt, nose millimeters off the ground, ears pronged and eyes keen to detect movement. Slithering through the bushes as if he was a serpent, the wolf hardly made a noise. Just a rustle here and there as branches annoyingly hindered his stealth. This small error made him lose his next target, which ran away into the bushes. Daishira huffed in failure but concentrated his mind on more game.

Just then, an unfamiliar bird caught his eyes. It was perched on a branch high up in a tree but what was unusual about this bird was that it seemed to be a combination of different species. As if it was a mix-and-match doll a child has put together for its own amusement.

A strange bird indeed.

Daishira considered climbing the tree and hunting it down but quickly rejected the idea. He had no idea what this new creature was capable of. It could be poisonous, it could physically outdo him in battle. It could just fly away as well if Daishira was not stealthy enough. However, he could not just leave it. Such an odd sight could not go unexplored. Instead of hunting it, Daishira kept his stance, low to the ground, and hid himself amongst the bushes. He would watch this 'bird' and see what it gets up to. As Daishira watched, he noticed the subtle changes. As if it morphed.

What? What is this?

The creature shifted its finer details for a few seconds longer. This sight intrigued Daishira. Never before had he seen someone, or something, morph into something else. Obviously, it was just finished, and Daishira was just fortunate enough to catch the final glimpses of its transformation. Morhping was not as quick and extreme as a Kelvic's transformation, but still. Such a beautiful yet strange collection of motions.

Daishira decided it would definitely watch this guy for a while longer. His hunger would have to wait. Besides, he had already had a snack to hold him over.

[Hadrian]

The black lammergeier model, that he had down. So it was too big, too heavy. Well, eventually he would learn how to make it more compact, lighter, and then flying wouldn't be so terribly difficult. But as he was fluffing his feathers, and began to look around him, turning his senses outward rather than inward, he caught the unfamiliar aura. Well, it was familiar in that he could recognize a Kelvic now after so many Kelvics had crossed his path. There was that dual-shape, human and animal. He just felt like he knew them so well, but that was to be expected after he had done his past life regression all the way back to Ironrock and Marcus Kelvic's experiments.

His head swiveled strangely as he tried to get the knack of those avian muscles and bones. It always took a quick period of adjustment to align his mind with the different anatomy he had grown himself, but then he just imagined what he wanted to do and the body seemed to figure it out when he didn't overthink it. His eyes peered at the wolf in hiding.

The beak opened and he sort of caw-croaked, beak clacking shut when he was done. Of course once he was properly morphed, a Kelvic would come along. In order to communicate, they would both have to take human form. But that took energy for the both of them. But a wolf wouldn't speak his strange brand of bird, and vice versa. With a raptor's version of a sigh, he edged back toward the crotch of the tree, where the branch met the trunk and his clothes were tucked. He just didn't want to fall out of the tree while changing back.

But change back he did when he could lean into the trunk, and the cold hit him like a hammer. Shuddering and shivering, he tried to dress himself quickly.

"Just a m-moment, Master K-k-kelvic," he called, his teeth chattering. "I'll b-be right d-down!" Chances were he'd feed the children in his care much more efficiently if he persuaded the Kelvic to hunt in exchange for something, because who was Hadrian kidding? He couldn't hunt, even in a hunter's form.

[Daishira]

This is a rather amusing display, Daishira thought to himself, as the bird stumbled along the branch and tried calling out to him.

It was quite spectacular though. The bird, no, morpher, had seen him! How? He was sure he was well camouflaged within the dirty ground and thick bush. But now his cover was blown, Daishira had no reason to hide anymore. Slowly, with caution, he emerged. Nose first, the moist black surface protruding. Then inching forward, his glinting eyes followed, then the rest of the mass of dark brown fur. Eventually, when he was out in the open, his sense of smell picked up something rather odd, just adding to the events of today. The scent of the bird quickly changed back into one of a human. A cold human too. Morpher it is.

"Just a m-moment, Master K-k-kelvic. I'll b-be right d-down!"

Master Kelvic? That's new. Daishira wasn't sure how to reply to this. He sure as hell wasn't going to transform into a human like this guy morphed into one. For one, he didn't have his clothes anywhere near him. Second, he wished to remain in his wolf form for hunting purposes. Wolves were far more effective at hunting than mere humans. Faster, more agile, sharper nails - better known as claws - and overall, more deadly.

He waited patiently for the strange, and rather outgoing he must admit, morpher to finish whatever he was doing behind the trunk. Probably dressing himself. He was glad once more for his thick fur that covered his body. The forest of fur was almost tropical in wintry temperatures. He remained silent, for a bark would most likely scare off the poor lad, and waited for him to talk some more. See what he wants.

[Hadrian]

The dressing took longer than normal for the cold, and the shaking it caused as his body tried to keep him from hypothermia. But once the winterbane coat went on over everything, he knew his temperature would level out. He took a deep breath and carefully climbed down the tree. Without claws, it wasn't so quick, but he had climbed up already and so he knew where the hand- and footholds were.

"H-hello," he said with a jerky smile, his body still recovering from the cold. "I'm Hadrian. You don't have to change if you don't want. I know it takes energy. I'll just..."

He knelt down, gathering a few stones into a small pile and held his hands over them. Red res snaked out of his skin, coiling around the rocks, and then slowly ignited, reacting with the stone until it was so hot, it began to melt. But he didn't spend too much energy on it. He didn't have to, really. The rock was mostly solid still, but giving off a great deal of heat, the snow around it melting. At least he could warm up a bit, and offer a bit of warmth to the Kelvic.

"Th-the stone won't smell like wood or brush, so it w-won't scare off your prey. I've been trying to hunt. I take c-care of the children at the orphanage in town. I need to be sure they h-have fresh food to stay healthy. There's a p-pox going around town. You might want to steer clear if you're worried. We've kept everyone healthy so far, but we have a healer, and we've taken precautions.

"I'm crap at hunting, though. Not a talented enough morpher to get everything right on the raptor forms. Perhaps I ought to try to copy yours..." Or there were the big cats, like Xnnn and Tiki, that he had learned, which wouldn't require such a great shifting of mass.

[Daishira]

The poor shivering human approached Daishira with a welcoming voice, even if his teeth were chattering. It made him seem rather awkward, but Daishira wasn't too bothered, he assumed the lack of heat made him pull a jerky smile. In front of him now stood a living reminder why he loved his fur coat. His warm, protective coat. The thought often reminded Daishira not to take his form for granted and to appreciate everything good it had to offer and ignore the bad, or even find a way for disadvantages to be useful. He always thought the extra weight of a wolf compared to a human served as a hindrance in terms of sprinting and jumping, however, he converted that mass into muscle and now, his abilities in running are adequate. For now.

The human before him introduced himself, lit a stone on fire and explained his situation. Orphanage... A hurtful reminder of Daishira's past. He let it bother him little though and it was far easier to hide his expression in wolf form to a human. Different expressions across species meant different things and a smile for a human may not necessarily mean the same for, say, a shark. So, Hadrian could not fully acknowledge the Kelvic's thoughts by reading his facial expressions. Only another wolf would understand.The last few words he spoke poked at Daishira's curiosity.

He can morph... into me?

Slowly, so not to scare the man away, Daishira lifted his right paw and prepared a single claw. He could speak Common in his human form. Whilst in his wolf form though, all he could do was bark and yelp. Occasionally, he growled. However, he can write. With his claw, he inscribed in the dirt with messy but readable handwriting, "How copy me?"

It had to be simple language, because writing a full sentence took far too much effort than required. And in all honesty, he would rather not spend most of his time writing his thoughts in the ground for this new hunter to read. Maybe Hadrian would see him as unintelligent. But for now, he would have to deal with whatever he assumed. Daishira right now, couldn't care less for his judgment. He was willing to help Hadrian anyway, for it was a good deed. Daishira liked good deeds. It helps make Mizahar a better place for everyone and he took pride in his good will.

[Hadrian]

The Kelvic made a motion and then began to scratch into the hard-frozen turf. Dark eyebrows rose, impressed. He wasn't sure he had met a Kelvic who could read and write. Certainly there were many who were intelligent, those not bonded prematurely, but only Ethan had really shown any sort of academic interests, and that might have to do with his long association with Hadrian himself, although they had never bonded.

How copy me? he read when the wolf moved so he could see.

Well.

"It's a magical discipline," he said, "morphing." He was going to say that some people believed it was part of the process by which Marcus Kelvic created the breed, but upon reviewing a certain past life via his chavi, Hadrian knew that wasn't it. He didn't know what it was, but it wasn't that.

"I can change my shape, but I'm not very good at it. Took me years to get this good, and I copied that raptor shape from a Kelvic friend of mine. I just can't get smaller. Lighter. So flying isn't really an option yet no matter how much I practice. I'm going to have to wait until I can figure out the trick of my mass."

He sighed, though not glum. It was just a matter of feeding those children, which needed doing now. His own shortcomings as a caregiver were immediately apparent. If he couldn't keep them fed, what good was anything else he did?

[Daishira]

Daishira was not aware of his 'impressive' ability to write in the ground. He took his skill for granted as he was brought up with literacy apparent in his surrounding environment. His father was a writer, constantly conjuring new ideas which flowed in the form of ink from the tip of his pen. Daishira now kept his pen in fond memory, it was his family heirloom. The golden surface added to its common worth but at the end of the day, it was only a pen. He could not sell it at some market for a decent price, not that he wanted to. This pen was the most sentimental and valuable thing to the young Kelvic since his father was slaughtered before his eyes...

The memory was almost completely gone from Daishira's mind, he seldom thought about it and he didn't think about it now. His thoughts now were purely focused on the nature around and the morpher before him. Constant peripheral senses were utilised if Daishira hoped to survive in the hunting game for long. Not only were some prey deadly, but there were other hunters, such as Hadrian himself, who could easily mistake the Kelvic for a worthy trophy.

Hadrian explained his morphing ability. Daishira's first impression of the man was he was outgoing, confident but physically lacking. He wasn't the bulkiest of people and he did say he wasn't very good at his particular talent. He wasn't aggressive either, which raised a question in Daishira's thought process.

Why is he hunting out here?

He was clearly not used to it. He didn't look the type to go in the wild and kill game for either fun or personal survival. Maybe he was doing it for someone else... a lover? Family? Or was he just that kind to deliver fresh meat to colleagues at work? The man was interesting to say the least.

After Daishira was sure Hadrian had finished explaining, which meant a moment's silence, he resumed etching in the ground, just below what he originally marked. It said:

I help. What need?

The lack of grammar and sentence structure inwardly annoyed the Kelvic. Of course, the effort of writing more in the ground was still not worth it, the main message was all that was important in this way of communication but... People who can't spell or form proper sentences should not have a valid opinion for they cannot even say what they mean. One could call him pedantic or just picky, but he always thought the rules of literacy were there for a goddamn reason. As soon as he could, he would transform into his human form and talk to Hadrian like a proper being would. He could not stand the thought of Hadrian thinking Daishira couldn't speak Common properly.