Changelings - Part Seven

And heeeeere's part seven!! There's only one part left, but fear not! I believe I have come up with a cool new idea for getting posts up. Involving the readers! :D It should be awesome.

But for now, enjoy!

The continued Tale of the Half-Changed – As recorded by Oren Fleethoof:

All in all, it was not as comfortable as humanly, (or changlingly), possible, but they made it suffice, and most lived there quite contentedly.

The exception was Talon Silver. His change of choice was a wolf. A massive silver wolf with huge paws, long fangs, and sharp claws. He rarely left the colony, much less his cave. It was twice to three times as large as the burrows or caves of everyone else, and was solid rock the whole way through. It had taken him many months to carve it out in the form of a badger, and had ground his digging claws down to the quick time and again. He flatly refused to share it with anyone, and stayed in or nearby almost constantly. One day, as he lay on the stone floor, wolf paws crossed and muzzle resting on them, a small bird alighted in front of him. He had been hunting recently, and so, he wasn't hungry. Instead of snapping it up for a snack, he waited a few moments and then growled softly,

“You realize I could be digesting you right now.”

The bird squeaked in surprise and fluttered a few feet away before chirping in reply, “Are you Talon Silver?”

“I am. What of it?” He asked, only his gold eyes moving to watch the bird.

“I've heard of you.” The bird said, tentatively hopping closer. “They say you're the largest wolf in the world.”

Talon grinned, well, wolfishly, showing his fangs and rows of sharp teeth. “I wouldn't doubt it.”

“They also say that you're... half human.”

Talon closed his eyes thoughtfully. “Perhaps I am.”

“I can't imagine a wolf-human.” The bird chirped, mostly to itself. It shivered, fluffing its' feathers and down. “That would be one of the most terrifying things in the world. Well, good-bye!”

With that, it fluttered off. Birds were known to be flighty. Talon however, thought long and hard about what the bird said. Changelings who could not complete a change were looked down upon as weak, at least by himself. Any changeling could become tired enough to have that happen, but it wasn't often.

A robin alighted on the cliff edge outside his cave, but maintained a careful distance.

“Talon,” It said pompously, “The Changeling Council has been hearing so much about the humans and their newest inventions and constructions, they've decided to send a group to investigate them and would like-”

Talon stood immediately, startling the robin into falling off the cliff edge.

It recovered quickly and and finished from the air, “...would like everyone to come to ground level to choose the group members.”

It flew away to join the growing throng. Talon blinked his golden eyes, then bounded down the cliff side. It was a very long and boring meeting, and Talon very nearly lost his temper, but managed to keep in check long enough to be chosen to go. The one thing he wasn't expecting to hear was that all three chosen changelings would be required to go in human form and stay that way for the whole trip.

They left the next day, the trio flew out of the colony and landed on the ground high above, immediately changing back into their basic forms. There was Terra Redtail, (her form of choice was a red squirrel), Oren Fleethoof (The rare unicorn changeling), and Talon.

Despite just changing from a fowl, Talon bore more resemblance to his wolf form because he spent so much time in it. His hair had a silver sheen to it, his teeth were slightly elongated, and sharper than normal, and his eyes were gold tinged. All in all, he would have looked rather frightening to the average-non-changeling, and in all honesty, even the changelings.

They set off on their journey. It took several long days of traveling. During that time, Talon developed a great disliking for Terra and Oren. The first night he had hunted for them and brought back several large rabbits, only to discover (much to his disgust) that both Oren and Terra had adopted their changeling habits and would not eat meat. Not only that, but he was severely reprimanded for changing at all.

So for the next few days, during mealtimes, Talon would conveniently disappear, and then return a little while later, his eye glinting somewhat wildly. Oren could just barely smell raw meat on him, and every once in a while, Terra thought she spotted blood. When questioned, he insisted he had not changed to his wolf form. It was only much later that Oren discovered this was only partly true. Talon had been experimenting with half-changing, merging his scheming human mind with the instincts of a wolf's in order to catch his prey.

Currently, though, they were oblivious to this. When they finally reached the human settlement, Oren told the settlers their story: That they were from a remote province and had come to confirm the rumors and tales of the settlers advancement. When he put it that way, the leader of the settlement gladly showed them all the workings of their village. The mechanical clock, the irrigation systems, the lighting systems, and a myriad of other clever inventions. Talon was particularly interested in the mechanical clock. For some reason, he seemed to like the gears and chains and levers and spent a long time sitting and watching it work. He didn't seem to care about the purpose of the clock, just its' inner workings. At one point he later told Oren that he almost wished he could change into a squirrel like Terra and scramble over all the fascinating mechanisms.

The last part will be up soon!
Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass!
-Trinity