3.A Shyft in the Right Direction

The cold air hit her as she instantly began to plummet through thin and cold air. The sudden feeling of falling hit her like that tower fair ride that sends you rushing to the ground and steals your breath. Pandrea tried to gasp for breath as she shot towards a massive cloud below.

As she smashed into the milky white cloud, she was instantly enveloped. The experience left her soaked, disoriented, and she shortly burst through the bottom. Pandrea started to get her breath and began to look down. It was terrific; the landscape was cover in deep vegetation with cliffs and waterfalls everywhere.

"Why did we enter from up here?!" Calimus roared with a tubular sound in her head.

"I don't understand what's going on," Pandrea screamed. She began to panic, and then time seemed to slow. The landscape came into focus, and it was separated by bright glowing lines, spiraling out from the middle. She took a mental picture to draw if she survived.

At that moment, she noticed something. A golden spark was coming from the trees. As the form shot closer, she could see brilliant golden wings and an elongated neck. At the end of that long neck was a long head with extremely razor-sharp teeth.

"Oh my god!" Pandrea screamed and started flailing about in the air, causing her to spin wildly. This situation was horrible; she was about to be eaten by a majestic golden dragon from her fairy tales. This chain of events seems to be the going rate over the last couple of hours because falling to her death wasn't bad enough. In the present circumstances, she would either be eaten or become human paste on the cliff below or... Pandrea gathered herself into a ball and closed her eyes.

Suddenly, Pandrea felt herself slowing down as arms encircled her, and she felt herself being caught and cringed, squeezing her eyes harder. When nothing happened, Pandrea opened her eyes and looked up. A ruggedly attractive man's face replaced the dragon's head with a clipped beard and blue eyes. He had short blonde hair that was an orderly mess that seemed it would look great; however it ended up.

"Are you alright? Where did you come from?" The man asked with a young voice as they floated down into the forest.

"I fell...from the sky," Pandrea said as they sank into the trees with the sounds of the forest surrounding them.

"The sky?! You came from the stars?!" The man exclaimed, almost releasing her.

"I wouldn't go as far as that..." Pandrea trailed off, looking around as they finally contacted the ground. "What is your name, and how did you turn into a dragon?"

"Sigardus," he said, then let out a long breath. As he did, golden mist poured from him. The wings, tail, and body just seemed to melt away onto the ground. The golden haze assumed the shape of a woman without a face the same way Calimus had. "And this is Kari, and she is one of my Shyfts."

"She's a ghost?" Pandrea asked hesitantly as the golden form drifted closer, inspecting her from all sides.

"Ghost? I am not sure what that is, do you not know what a Shyft is?" Sigardus asked her with a questioning look.

"What you're talking about is confusing me. I have something similar that I just met, but I have no understanding of what it is or how it works," Pandrea said, panting slightly still from the shock of the fall. "This is all new to me."

"I see, I don't understand, but I see," he chuckled and continued. "Shyfts are an ethereal spirit that slips between planes of existence. Once in our realm, they manifest into creatures, beings, and even monsters. Some people seek and devote their lives to find a certain Shyft, but we all make a connection with them to bind the bond that allows us to take on ethereal forms. Some Shyfts have the power to change their form physically, but these can be dangerous," Sigardus told her as Kari still was intently examining her.

"What do you mean by dangerous? Will they harm you?" She was subconsciously thinking about Calimus and his awkward silence treatment. The idea crossed her mind that he might have nefarious plans worse than the red-winged monsters could ever do. Pandrea was starting to get worried then she heard Calimus let out an audible sigh from the depths of her mind.

"Hurt you? No, not normally. Only the great old ones could cause us harm since they are the closest to our material plane. No, that kind does not leave and never break the bond. The biggest problem they pose is that their personalities will fuse with the host. This type will cause you to become different. Your attitude would change, and the way you do things."

"How can you tell the difference between them?" Pandrea asked him as Kira reached out a golden hand to touch her arm. Her misty hand passed through Pandrea's arm, and there was a feeling of a warm breeze brushing her skin.

"See how Kira is like a mist? The more troublesome ones are more substantial. They look like they are melting, but it's just their energy trying to assert itself in our material plane from the Aethereal plane. Physical contact can be made, but they are normally shy to other humanoids," as Sigardus told Pandrea this, Kira had begun to swirl around her feet.

"Get that golden flake away from you, that little tramp wants you to go for a ride," Calimus said with disgust in the back of her mind.

"Why wouldn't I want to go flying? Why are you so defensive now that she has begun getting close?" she asked Calimus in her mind.

"...I was issued orders to guard you; these lower spirits are like children. All they want to do is laugh and play all day," he said to Pandrea with a bitter voice in her head.

"Are you jealous?" she asked in a voice that projected a foolish grin.

"Jealous? Me? No, I do not wish to waste time. We have a very import..." Calimus began saying, but Sigardus cut off the thought.

"Are you alright? Umm miss? I hadn't caught your name yet, but you seemed like you were in deep thought. My friend Kira has taken a liking to you; maybe you should indulge her. She seemed very excited by you for some reason."

"Indulge her? My name is Pandrea, but what do you mean by indulging her?" She asked with a confused look on her face.

"When we breathe in the Shyft's essence, they allow us to take on ethereal forms. Not everyone takes the same form, and the more Shyft's you use, the stronger you become. There is a problem with using too many Shyfts at once. If a person has too many at once, they start to stop being able to control the Shyfts. When this happens, a person changes and no longer acts the same way. Our bodies can only handle so many personalities," Sigardus explained to her.

Sigardus smiled and stepped back. Kira had begun to swirl up and around her, but Pandrea could still hear Calimus complaining in the back of her mind. She looked at Sigardus, and he nodded, making an inhaling gesture for her to copy. She breathed in the golden mist and heard soft laughter. Then she began changing.

The feeling of her body ripping itself apart was no better this time. Pandrea let out a ragged cry that became a roar that caused Sigardus to jump back in fright. She could feel bones cracking, skin tearing, and her face changing and becoming longer again.

When the pain finally subsided, Pandrea opened her eyes to see that Sigardus had scrambled back behind a tree. She looked down at herself and couldn't believe what she saw. Her skin was still as black as midnight, but now there were golden flames painted on her wrists and ankles. Her hands had long golden claws now, and her body felt lighter and faster.

"How?!" Sigardus stammered as he stepped out from behind the tree. "You were all killed 17 years ago when Demorin invaded Wolfvens Keep. Everyone was slaughtered because of a jealous rivalry. Wolf form was thought to be lost. Even the Shyft's had been all captured."

He was looking at her more curiously now. He came over and put a hand on her arm. His touch was warm, and it sent my heart racing. In this form, Pandrea was a lot taller than him, but he continued looking her over. The way he eyed her, examining every inch, made her start to blush. This feeling translated to a bright golden blush that even she could see rising from her cheeks.

"Amazing, I don't think I have ever seen a full Shyft. When I change my form, I still stay as a human underneath Kira's Ethereal form. You, though, your entire body changes. I heard you scream when you changed, and I didn't know what to do. I've never seen someone able to Wolf-Shyft; only those of the Wolfvens kingdom could do it." He paused at her side and then dropped down to examine her large golden feet with vicious-looking curved claws."If you look closely at your hands, you will be able to see your normal black claws through Kira's Shyft."

Pandrea brought her hand closer, and she could see the jet black claws and fingers through the gold. It felt like having two individual layers of gloves on. She tried closing her hand, but when the golden claws closed, her hand still felt like it was partially open. Heedless to Pandrea staring at her hands, Sigardus continued explaining the kingdoms.

"You're in Drawlgon right know, the kingdom that I was born. We can transform into different types of dragons called Drag-Shyfts. Only the king, the Prince, and his four knights can become dragons. The rest of us can only pseudo-Shyft with our Shyfts."

"Then, your not a prince?" She asked Sigardus as he took a step back to examine her further, but then a small soft female voice spoke to Pandrea in her mind.

"Not a prince, no...he is something...different...like you...but not like you, child of change," then Pandrea was forced to expel a breath and the golden mist poured out of her. Then she began to steam, and her body slowly shifted back. The transformation back to human was unpainful. Once she had completely changed back to her own body, Pandrea stood up and looked over at the wide-eyed gawking Sigardus.

"That mist coming off you as you changed! That ethereal energy! Remarkable! I never dreamed I would get to study something like this!" He said with joy, smiling ear to ear, pulling a weird vine bound and leaf-covered book out, and a sharpened stick of coal on the side of his pants. He became lost in jotting notes down, and he danced around her.

"What are you doing?" She asked him with a bewildered expression on her face.

"Recording information, of course! My travels don't normally lead me to such a trove of new information," Sigardus said as he continued recording things. "I record information about special Shyfts. I've tried to find an elder Shift to try to bond with it so that I could study the effects of amalgamation between two minds. Yet here you are with obviously some sort of elder Shift, and you seem very new to the concepts. In my estimation, this seems like the perfect case study for myself and Kira. Besides, we can help supply you with the information we have gathered in return for our study of you."

Mr. Knight, in a shining dragon, was turning into the nerd of the jungle. She had to admit, though, it was kind of cute seeing him become so interested in her. She was in a new place with no idea where she was or what she would do. Trusting the first person she met didn't seem like that bad of an idea, right?