Changelings - Part Eight

Normally, I'd wait a bit longer before posting the next part, but I'm excited to get to that new thing I told you about! :D
I now present to you the eighth and final part of Changelings. (Final for now.)

Part 8 -

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

The eve of their departure, the leader of the settlement, whose name was Corag, insisted they stay long enough for a village wide farewell festival.

“There will be dancing and singing and food like you've never seen!” He told them.

Talon sneered, showing his fang-like teeth. Corag tried not to cringe. Oren Fleethoof and his friend Terra Redtail seemed nice enough, but this... Talon Silver... seemed slightly, well, wrong somehow. There was just something about him that didn't sit right with Corag.

“We would be glad to come.” Oren said graciously.

As Corag left, Talon growled something under his breath and Terra, who had heard what he said, punched his shoulder.

In a flash, he grabbed her wrist and snarled, “Never strike me!”

Terra wrenched her arm away and glared at him in disgust.

Oren frowned at him as well. “That was unnecessary, Talon.”

Talon's irises were gold-tinted, but the whites of his eyes were bloodshot. “Maybe you don't realize what truly is necessary, Oren Fleethoof.”

With that cryptic remark, he strode away.

“Something's wrong with him, Oren.” Terra said quietly.

“I know.” Oren gazed after Talon thoughtfully. “I just can't figure out what.”

That night, true to their word, the settlers threw the largest party the changelings had ever seen. The dancing was spectacular, the singing was superb, and the food delectable. The only thing missing, Oren and Terra slowly realized, was Talon. Corag noticed too, but honestly, he didn't really mind.

“It's so rude!” Terra hissed to Oren. “He should be here. He doesn't have to dance if he doesn't want to, but he should at least make an appearance.”

Oren agreed. “But where could he be?”

Terra thought hard, then said, “The clock tower. That's where he is. He wants to see the inside of the clock before we go.”

“You're right.” Oren got up and excused himself to Corag. Then he went to find Talon.

Sure enough, Talon was sitting in the clock tower, staring at the gears as though mesmerized.

“Talon!” Oren called, coming in the door at the bottom of the tower. He couldn't see Talon yet.

“We were to attend the celebration, not brood away the night in a dark tower.”

“Have you ever tried brooding, Oren?” Talon's voice was deceptively calm, not coming from any definite direction. “It does wonders for clearing the mind.”

“If you wanted to brood, why didn't you stay home and do it in your cave then?” Oren returned.

Talon let out a barking laugh. “There's nothing there for us changelings. I see the possibilities here and I must brood on them.”

Oren began to climb the stairs that wound up around the inside of the clock tower. “I've seen the possibilities as well. We must take word of them back to the colony. We could be so advanced!”

Talon laughed again. “Then you've obviously not seen the possibilities. We can do more than bring word. We can bring the inventions themselves.”

Oren searched for Talon's form in the darkness. “No! Have you taken leave of your senses!? We can't just take what these settlers have worked so hard on!”

“What you're saying is, we shouldn't. There's not question whether or not we can.”

Sighing, Oren said, “Come on, Talon. We have to get back to the celebration. You can discuss your ideas with the Council when we get home.”

“You're practically on the Council!” Talon snapped. “You know what they'll say.”

“Yes, I do!” Oren roared, finally losing his temper. “You will come out of your hiding place and come with me now, Talon Silver!"

Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass!
-Trinity

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

Changelings - Part Six

Haha! Here I am! Just squeaking past the deadline! And I have here with me part six! (Here's where things start get interesting.)



Part Six -

Sabine blinked in surprise and unrolled the top of the scroll enough to see the title. In neat, thick script, it said, “The Tale of the Half-Changed – As recorded by Oren Fleethoof”

“Oh!” She said in surprise. “It was written by Oren!”

Lady Fontaine eyed her coldly. “Of course it was. Did you think I was just making things up?”

“No. I'm sorry.” Sabine said, smiling and bowing gracefully. “Thank you for finding it for me.”

Fontaine ruffled her feathers and answered primly, “You're very welcome. Now, if you're going to read it, you'd better get started. It's certainly not the shortest tale I have here.”

Sabine nodded and slipped away. In one corner of the room, a fireplace crackled, surrounded by fluffy chairs, a soft rug, and a deep couch. Draped across the full length of the couch was a black panther with a book tucked under it's chin, drowsing. Sabine sat on the floor, leaning against the couch. The panther's tail flicked over and curled across her shoulder. She reached up and scratched it's jaw absently. It began to purr, a deep, vibrating rumble.

Sabine unrolled the first ten inches of the scroll and began to read...

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

Changelings did not always reside in a comfortable castle as they do now. Once, not so long ago, they lived in a hole. It was miles wide, and really, it was less of a hole than a round cliff surrounding them, but it was far from comfortable, or hospitable. The most fortunate had an actual hut to shelter them from the rain, and that could accommodate them both changed and unchanged. But there were very few such structures. Most were forced to burrow through the rock walls, or if you were especially lucky, you could find a dirt patch, which was much more comfortable. The only way out of their sub-level fortress was a steep, dangerous stairway that curved up the east side. Otherwise, the inhabitants had to change into something with wings and fly out. This was much easier, as, because of the positioning of their colony, the wind that blew overhead would catch on the lip of the cliffs and swirl down and then back up again in the summer, creating a lift that was extraordinarily easy to ride to the top. In the winter, the wind blew in the opposite direction, and the frigid winds rarely disturbed the warm air generated by all the changelings below.

A little shorter than usual, but I got excited when I started writing this part of the story, so the next (last) two parts are a little beefier. 

Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass!
-Trinity

Changelings - Part Four and Five

....

It's been over a week.

And I blame you.

Not that it's your fault, but I blame you.

Because if you remember correctly, I gave you full permission to hold me to my promise.

Okay, fine. I broke my promise.

BUT! 

I put up two parts at once to try to get back in your good graces. Which you may or may not end up being grateful for since there are only eight parts and I'm giving you two at once. But here you go. And once again, I re-promise to put the next part up within a week. And this time, feel free to harass me on Facebook. Please. Because I completely forgot this last week.

Part 4 - 

“Oh! Were-wolves.” Sabine spent most of her time living among normal humans, away from the changelings castle home-base, so some of the 'basic' changeling knowledge escaped her. “There've been more sightings of were-wolves in the last month than I've heard in the last three years put together.”

Oren roused himself from thought, but the concerned crease in his brow remained. “If you will excuse me, I have something to attend to. Gregg, I would suggest you head back to your room and get a good long rest. It's still early morning and I think this afternoon and tonight are going to be very busy.”

Gregg nodded smoothly. His every move was reminiscent of his last form. He left for his room, his footsteps silent.

“Sabine, would you accompany me to the hatching room?” Oren asked.

Sabine also nodded, but much more excitedly.

Oren smiled, amused. “The eggs in the hatching room are very fragile, my dear. Perhaps it would be better if your temperament were a touch calmer. A cat, possibly?”

Sabine made a face. “Cats aren't really my thing.”

She closed her eyes and concentrated. Her whole body lengthened, and every feature smoothed out, as if her arms, neck, shoulders and legs had been wiped flat. Her face lengthened and became diamond shaped. Finally, her clothes were replaced by shimmering blue and purple scales.

Coiling herself, Sabine the boa constrictor flicked her forked tongue out, smelling the air. One of the cats by the fireplace raised its head, glanced at her and lazily laid back down.

“I must say, you are one of the showiest boa constrictors I have ever met.” Oren chuckled.

“Thanksssss.” Sabine hissed, shivering herself to see the firelight dance of her scales. “Jussst give me a sssecond.”

The snake closed her eyes, and her head bobbed in a circle as she thought hard. In a few moments, the change had reversed itself, leaving Sabine with long, shiny black hair flowing down her back. She herself was slightly taller and a little more willowy. When she moved, she tended to take a curving motion instead of a straight path, and her hair showed the slightest blue-purple undertone.

“Sshall we go?” She asked, some of the after-effects still fading.

“Certainly.” Oren led the way out of the room and through the maze of hallways.

After a few minutes of walking, he put his finger to his lips and pushed open a heavy door. Sabine followed him through and blinked in surprise. It was very warm and dry inside. Other changelings in human form moved around carefully carrying baskets of colorful eggs, setting them in newly warmed nests. While Oren went to find someone in the far recesses of the room, Sabine tried to keep from licking her lips. The eggs looked to her still ever-so-slightly-snake-like eyes like a heavenly feast.

“Snake!” She hissed to herself angrily. “What was I thinking?!”

Part 5 -

After gazing around hungrily for a few more moments, Sabine wisely, left the hatchery, waiting just outside the door for Oren. He appeared after about five minutes, glancing around for her.

“Ah. There you are.” He said, then sighed heavily. “I'm afraid there's a lot of work for me to do.”

“Why?” Sabine asked smoothly. “Is something amiss?”

Oren let the faintest smile flicker across his face. “You still speak like a snake.”

“Is that so?” Sabine said in surprise, unknowingly stretching her S's.

“Yes. You chose word with lots of hissing noises.” He answered. “I'd be glad to tell you exactly what's wrong, but it's a rather long and involved story. However, I think it would behoove you if you found Lady Fontaine and asked her for the Tale of Half-Changelings.”

“That sssounds-” Sabine stopped and changed her words. “I'll do that.”

Oren nodded, not really paying her much attention as they split up. Sabine moved down the hallways silently but quickly. Every once in a while, the tiniest vibrations would travel through the stone floor, alerting her to someone's presence. Sabine shook her head, trying to rid herself of the snakley influence. Since she had not changed into one for a while, it's influence affected her strongly and would take a little while longer to wear off. If she did not change again for several days, she would gradually lose all the after effects and return to just Sabine, in appearance, personality, and movement.

She stopped in front of a heavy wooden door and blinked, surprised she had already arrived at the library. On the door was a sign:

The Library of Lady Fontaine:

Changes not allowed: Monkey, Elephant, Birds (excluding owls),

Skunks, Ferrets, Kangaroos, and any water creature.

NO CHANGING IN THE LIBRARY

Will all those who have changed please leave the library to do any personal business.

Beneath the last part of the sign, someone had scrawled: “And those who haven't changed too!”

Sabine pushed the door open and entered quietly. A large black panther glanced at her as it walked past with a large tome carefully held in it's mouth. Sabine slipped past to find Lady Fontaine. Soon she located her, a barn owl sitting at a desk in the back of the room. She was swiveling her head all the way around and back again, listening carefully. When she saw Sabine, she cocked her head almost completely upside down.

“Sabine. I haven't seen you in quite awhile.” She said quietly, her beak clacking.

Sabine was impressed. It was supposed to be very difficult for owls to speak to non-changed because of their unique beak shape, but Lady Fontaine was very good at it.

“Oren sent me.” She explained. “He said to ask you for the Tale of the Half-Changed.”

Lady Fontaine blinked her large black eyes, then turned and took off silently from the desk, swooping above the many, many bookshelves, chattering softly to herself, “Tale of the Half-Changed. Heavy reading. Dark times, then.”

After a few minutes, she returned, dropping a large scroll into Sabine's hands and alighting on the desk. “There you are, my dear. But, what does Oren want with the Tale of the Half-Changed? He should remember it.”

“He's in it?” Sabine asked in surprise.

Lady Fontaine churred softly, laughing. “Not only is he in it, dear, he wrote it.”

Welp, there ya go!

Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass!
-Trinity

Changelings - Part Three

Well, I haven't posted since April 5th. I'm a very mean person to leave you hanging like that. And so, to make it up to my (two?) readers, I will immediately post the next part of the Changelings story, with the answer to who "they" are.

A quick summary of where we are in the story, 'cause it's been over a month since I posted the last part.
Gregg, Sabine, Kay and Oren are changelings. They can change into animals. Gregg is bringing news to Oren in the sorta changeling headquarters, which is a large castle. Oren kind of runs the place.Kay is a bird changeling that Gregg got his news from. Sabine is Gregg's friend. Gregg had been running through the snow, all night long, as a cream colored cat. He was so tired, he couldn't finish his change and got stuck halfway between cat and human, but Oren fixed him up with a tonic. Sabine just changed back into a human from a wolf, so she's a bit excitable right now, borrowing from the dog-like personality she just had.
I think that pretty much covers it. Here's part three for your enjoyment!

>>>>>>>> Part Three <<<<<<<

Sabine grinned back at Gregg. “You’re blonde.”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “Well, I was cream colored.”

She looked meaningfully at Oren. “You wanted to tell him something?”

He winced and nodded. Turning to Oren he said, “Sir, one of our field units reported movement. They seem to be migrating.”

Oren frowned, an unusual expression for him. “Which one?”

“Sir?”

“Who reported this?” Oren repeated.

“Oh. Kay, sir. Kay…” Gregg searched for the name. “…Torth.”

Oren sighed heavily. “I was afraid of that.”

Sabine stepped forward, her eyes glinting wolf-green in the dancing firelight. “Is something wrong with Kay?”

“No, not at all.” Oren sat down in the chair Gregg had been napping on moments earlier. “Kay is extraordinarily reliable. She’s been with us since she was an infant changeling.

Just a little tiny thing. She used to change to a kitten and I’d put her on my shoulder. She would cling there and watch me work.”

“Sir?” Gregg said quickly, hoping to break him from his bout of nostalgia.

“Oh, yes. Sorry.” Oren smiled. “No, Kay has never been wrong. Which means there’s very little hope that she’s mistaken.”

Sabine glanced between Gregg and Oren and back again. “They can’t really be migrating, can they?”

Gregg looked very serious. “Not exactly.”

Oren put his finger tips together and explained, “Half-changers don’t migrate. If they’re on the move, they’re coming here.”

“Half-changers.” Sabine repeated, a little awed. “They do that on purpose?”

“Yes.” Oren said absently, deep in thought.

“The common people refer to them as were-wolves.” Gregg explained. 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I know that's still kind of short, but they will get longer pretty soon. 

One more thing. I made a Facebook page a while back, and I try to post there every time I post here. Sometimes in-between posts as well, so if you wanna check it out it's here. 

Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass!
-Trinity

Changelings - The Rules and Guidelines

Trinity here, finally! I've been sick, and that is my excuse for not posting, but I'm getting better, so hopefully more posts are on the way. (Hannah's been doing a marvelous job keeping the blog up-to-date and fabulous in my absence, by the way.)
Recently I've been pondering and reasoning about my changeling characters. I decided to be ambiguous on where exactly they got their powers, at least for now, and just focus on how they work.
So, Rules and Guidelines For Changelings in Trinity's Yet-To-Be-Named World.

1. Changing takes energy and concentration. 
It is very difficult for a changeling to complete a change when tired, running, frightened, distracted, or basically under any sort of duress.

2. Emotions affect the speed of a change.
Depending on the changeling, being happy could speed up the changing process, while being sad could make it take longer.

3. While in changed form the instincts of the true form will be present and must be suppressed in order to perform actions inconsistent to the form's nature.
For example, if a changeling became a cat and had to cross a river, they would have to suppress the cat's distaste for swimming and water in general. A changeling is able to fully distinguish between their own thoughts and the urges of the animal when in a changed form.

4. Every changeling has a Familiar.
A familiar is the animal form they find easiest to change to, easiest to control, and usually matches their personality the closest. Every changeling has a familiar, though sometimes it can take years to discover what creature it is. Each changeling must find their familiar for themselves, as no one else can tell what your familiar is.

5. A changeling's familiar can change over the course of their lifespan.
If you've read or watched Harry Potter, you will be familiar with a "patronus". (That is, a positive energy force that is fully-formed, taking the shape of bright-white, translucent animal. The specific animal forms that corporeal Patronuses take vary from person to person and reflect each individual's personality). Now, you have to have read the books to know that a person's patronus can change based on events that have changed their life. Similarly, a changelings familiar can change, though it's very rare.

6. When a changeling is exhausted, or greatly distracted, they may not be able to complete a change, leaving them stuck in what's called a half-change.
Half-changes are unnatural and unsafe. During this time, a changeling is unable to clearly distinguish between their human thoughts and the animal's urges and instincts. It effectively scrambles the human and animal "brains". It will also affect mobility as neither "brain" is used to the blended proportions, though theoretically this could be overcome with practice, it's highly discouraged and deeply frowned upon.
There are several ways to recover from a half-change. If distracted, resume your concentration and complete the change. If exhausted, rest and/or eat and then complete the change as soon as you possibly can. There are herbs that can help complete a change, but they're difficult to find.
In general, accidental half-changes are harmless, but there is at least one recorded incident when a woman who remained in a half-change for over a month eventually went insane.

7. A half-change from one animal to another is the most dangerous of all.
This is because you now have three different "brains" vying for control, thought still only two sets of proportions. If a changeling has any doubt at all that they will not be able to complete the change from one form to another, they should not attempt it.

8. Any injuries a changeling sustains will translate over to another form as anatomically closely as possible.
For example, if a changeling was in cat form and lost their tail, say, because it got shut in a door, when they changed back, their human form would likely have a gaping wound on their lower back.

9. Each changeling has their own size limit concerning changes.
This limit can be stretched/pushed with practice. For instance, when a changeling first begins to change, they may only be able to change into an animal the size of a mouse, but can work up to chicken, then a cat, then a dog, then a goat, and so on and so forth.
Some changelings who have larger familiars may have more trouble discovering them, as they first have to reach the size group of their familiar. For this reason also, some changelings never find their familiar.

10. Every change a changeling makes leaves it's mark on the changeling.
An example would be, that if a changelings last change was a snake, their movements may tend to zig-zag a little, they may be a little more slender, their hair color may change depending on the species of snake, and they may tend toward using words with more hissing noises.
Usually the effects fade the longer a changeling is in their human (natural) form. However, the longer a changeling spends in a specific form, the more permanent the effects from that form become.

And that's all I have for now in the way of my changeling rules and whatnot. If I think of anything else, I may do another post on it, but then again, I may not. We'll see.
Also, I do plan to put more Tribes of the Earth up, but it might be a little while since I need to edit it, and Christmas is coming up, and all that good stuff. So, yeah. I'm procrastinating. I also have a character post in the works, and that'll probably be my next post.
Anyhow, it's getting late and I must be off!

Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass! 
~ Trinity