15.Overbearing Big Sister

The sound of the stomping footsteps got closer. Pandrea noticed that Dalphia had turned towards the door, and she had a wicked grin spread across her face. As the thumping got near, they heard the sound of Prince Valkirius growling voice.

"Why does he want me to go with this wretched," but a loud bang abruptly cut him off.

As the Prince turned from the hall to storm into the room, the door closed. The sounds of cursing filled the hall outside the door. Soon the door burst open, and a seething Valkirius entered looking for someone to vent his anger on, his eyes falling first on Pandrea, then Dalphia. When their eyes met, the Prince's attitude and composer changed. Drastically.

"Oh, hello, sister. I didn't know you were here, I," but Dalphia cut him off before he could continue.

"OH! If it isn't my wittle brother," Dalphia spoke in a childish voice, and suddenly, the Prince rose into the air flailing.

"Stop this at once, Dal! I am no longer a child!" Valkirius protested as he continued to thrash.

Suddenly, he froze in the mid-air flail. The warmth began to seep from the room. Pandrea felt the hairs on her arms rose as the temperature dropped. As Dalphia walked toward Valkirius, light and shadows bent around her.

Soon the only light surrounded him like a presence. Simultaneously, the shadow looked to wrap the light in a great pair of jaws trying to devour the sphere. Tendrils of shadow slid up and down the globe as Dalphia got close to the Prince's face.

Shadows rippled and moved, covering most of Dalphia's body. It made it hard for Pandrea to look at her. Staring for to long left her with a feeling of motion sickness.

"Stop acting like a child then and apologize to our guest," Dalphia's voice cut like a knife, making the air even colder. Pandrea began to shiver, and Dalphia finally took her gaze away from her brother. As she turned, everything went back to normal.

"What was that!?" Pandrea gasped. She hadn't realized it, but with all the pressure from the shadows, Pandrea had held her breath.

Dalphia rushed over to Pandrea's side, and as she did, the Prince fell in a heap on the ground. The Prince quickly got to his knees and began to apologize profusely. It was hard to make out anything he was saying.

"I'm so sorry!" Dalphia exclaimed as she sat down beside Pandrea on the bed.

"It's ok, I guess I just didn't see it coming or something," Pandrea mumbled as she rubbed the side of her neck.

"No, this is my fault. I am so used to everyone around me to have training. We learn to shield ourselves from non-hostile and hostile presences. Some abilities have a more widespread effect than just the intended focus," Dalphia explained, but not before she shot a look at the frantic Prince to be quiet.

"So, you use your Shyfts somehow to block it?" Pandrea asked. Dalphia smiled and patted Pandrea's knee.

"No, this is something we all learn from a young age. We all have a basic amount of Mental force. Some have a lot more than others, but you can train it to increase your potential, but I digress. The point is with focus, you can extend that force outside your body. This cocoon will protect you when others are exerting their mental force or their presence on others. As we travel, I will teach you like my students," Dalphia said. At some point in Dalphia's explanation, the Prince had slipped out the door.

"Do you mind if I ask What kind of Shyft you have?" Pandrea asked timidly. Dalphia had been slowly edging closer to, and her smile felt a little more than friendly.

"Oh? Yes, of course. I'll show you mine if you show me yours," Dalphia cooed seductively as she stood back up. Her demeanor and expression had changed since her brother left. Dalphia had gone from caring big sister to seductive mistress without notice.

Pandrea stood up and closed her eyes. In a moment, she found his presence.

"Yes, I shall come, this feels nostalgic," Calimus voice echoed quieter than usual in Pandrea's mind.

Soon, the wolf's shape rose from Pandrea's shadow, and Aquina floated down on a blue cloud beside Calimus.

Dalphia let out a squeal and rushed toward Aquina. As she did, an explosion of colors erupted from Dalphia. Multiple Shyfts filled the room of different varieties.

"OH MY GOODNESS!" Dalphia gushed over the little blue woman, and five Shyfts of different colors surrounded them.

The group slowly pushed Calimus back, but he was paying them no mind. Pandrea noticed him looking around for something. She then noticed something from the corner of her eye.

Part of Dalphia's shadow had pealed away in the shape of a snake. It was small at first but slowly grew to six feet in length. Calimus noticed this and sat back on his haunches.

"Calimus, its good to see you again," the snake hissed, dragging each 's' as it spoke.

"Pendra, It's is a pleasure to see you so well," Calimus spoke while tipping his head.

"It is very rare to see another Shadow of Gravity these days. It will be good to work with you and this child," Pendra hissed.

"Shadow of Gravity?" Pandrea asked out-loud.

Dalphia turned from her fussing of Aquina and smiled at Pandrea in that more than friendly way.

" Each Shyft has at least one type of elemental attribute. Some have more. Some gain new attributes and powers through a Shyfting. Shyfting is like a change that makes them stronger, and their level of consciousness rises in our realm. This evolution will make them smart and more communicative, in most cases," Dalphia explained.

"What do you mean in most cases?" Pandrea asked hesitantly.

"Well, in some cases, Gra'Nixhas to be more exact. They treat their Shyfts like a beast and beat them. They make them physically stronger, but nothing more than beasts. This mindlessness of a beast translates into the people that use the shyfts, but at that point, most of them are brutal murders to start with, so the Shyfts don't change them much, just make them better at killing," Dalphia finished coldly.

Both of the women became silent, but soon the silence was broke with interested chatter sounds.

"Who is this?" A red fox asked as it brushed against Pandrea's robe.

Pandrea had not noticed that she was wearing it. Suddenly, her cheeks flushed crimson as Pandrea realized that she was not wearing any clothes underneath. Dalphia chuckled ominously beside Pandrea as she groped herself.

"Don't worry, Big Sis got you all cleaned up and into that nice and comfortable robe," Dalphia conveyed in a pouting voice then turned to the fox. "This is Pandrea," pointing to the girl with the complexion of lava.

"And this is Lunic, my lovely Fire Fox of Islands. Don't be fooled by this cute little devil," Dalhpia switched over to a cutesie voice and grabbed the fox up in her bosom, squeezing the life out of it. Then switching to a more menacing tone, "he can get quite a bit bigger, I'm sure you have seen my brothers prized possession."

"Prized?" Pandrea asked, still flustered over this woman having changed and bathed her while she was unconscious.

"Yes, the Prince only uses his Frost Dragon of the Burning Mist Trees. It has evolved five times, so it is mighty, but its the only one he has," Dalphia condescendingly. "Not to mention the Shyfts pride and ego are a match with Val's. So it will never shrink from its full size. This weakness means Val always has his knights to back in up in tight spaces."

"I keep getting off-topic. Where are my manners? Let me introduce you to the others. You have met Pendra the Shadow Snake of Gravity, and Lunic. Next is Echo, Vibrating Cattegus of Winds," Dalphia announced, a long tiger-like creature with wings.

It was slightly smaller then Calimus, but looked agile with golden furred and blonde streaking through it. Pandrea thought Echo was a majestic looking animal, with its robust build and noble stance.

"Deviolen is next. This one has been waiting in the back patiently. You can come forward, my lovely, just keep it house size. Step back the rest of you and give him some room," Dalphia warned them as she pushed Pandrea back to the bed.

Pandrea noticed a small, maybe five-inch tall lizard with wings. Something was different about this one. Something was spinning around its body, and Pandrea could see little flickers of light coming from the mass.

Slowly Deviolen grew from the size of a cat to just bigger than Calimus. Now, that mass was easier to see. You could feel waves of energy emitted from the roiling storm of black clouds that created a nimbus around the small dragon. Periodically, bolts of red and yellow would flash in the shadows. Dalphia said that was enough, and Deviolen shrank back down, this time to the size of a mote, and floated back to her, soon absorbing back into Dalphia.

"Deviolen, Storm Dragon of Brilliant Chaos Winds! This lovely has to control his form very carefully. Suppose he doesn't focus the storm? It can spread up to two-hundred and fifty meters. Causing untold damage, so he likes to rest inside unless I'm in trouble. Pendra is the same, but Echo and Lunic like to be free. Enough about me and my lovelies, we have to talk about Miss Aquina!" Dalphia exclaimed.

"Aquina? What do you mean? Is there something wrong with her?" Pandrea asked worriedly, rushing over to the smiling Aquina. Both Shadow Shyfts had slid back to their respective shades.

"No, no, silly. Aquina is fine, it's just your new to all of this, and you wouldn't know about the Shyft shapes," Dalphia explained. "When we find a Shyft normally they are unevolved and cant from words. This occurrence happens for one of two reasons. One, they are newly formed from the Aether, or two, their partner died. Now when a partner dies, unless the Shyft is transferred to a new owner or storage withing thirty hours. If this doesn't happen, the Shyft loses all memory of everything that happened."

"Oh, so what does that mean for Aquina? How do I know which was the case, and does it matter?" Pandrea asked.

"Yes and no. Having a Shyft that has had a partner means that they don't have those memories, but they still have the experience. These past experiences mean that things they knew and were good at will shine through again. For new sprites fresh from the Aether, they tend to be clumsy and take longer to cultivate their growth. That doesn't mean that it can't become great. It means that the more lives with have lived, the faster it will advance," Dalphia explained, then pointing to Aquina. "I can't teach you the skill to see the soul yet, but I can tell you she is very old."

This comment caused Aquina to frown at Dalphia, which made her giggle, and tried to pinch Aquina's cheeks.

Aquina slid past the outstretched cheek pinchers on her cloud, sliding behind Dalphia. Suddenly, little blue arms reached from either side of Dalphia's head and grabbed her cheeks. Dalphia squealed in what Pandrea couldn't decide was pleasure or pain.

"You call me old, you hag. Don't even get me started, miss. I know how old you are, being a pervert around the little miss Pandrea," Aquina growled from behind Dalphia, but she had reached around while Aquina was talking and snatched her before she could continue. She brought around and squished the little blue woman into her bosom to silence her.

" Now that we know this little old croon has some experience, I can teach to give her a form," Dalphia said excitedly.

"A form? Like an animal? It just not a dragon because it's...dragon country?" Pandrea asked, thinking about what Sigardus had told her.

Dalphia burst into laughter.

"Who told you that? No, silly, you just have to cultivate the image in your mind while focusing on your Shyft. Now you can pick any form, but the Shyft also has to agree. If you sit down, we can practice right now. Once she has a form, she while become stronger," Dalphia explained as she sat down, pulling Pandrea with her. Pandrea sighed, wondering if and when Sigardus would get here.

The group landed just outside the city, and they all released their Shyfts. As the Aetherial steam flowed off them, they stared up at The City of Fire, Utravenna. Before they started moving, Sigardus sneezed dramatically.

"Are you ok?" Titania asked.

"Ya, I'm fine," Sigardus replied, rubbing his nose.

"Somebody is thinking about you," Liam laughed as they all walked toward the city gate.

"Hopefully, good thoughts," Sigardus mused.