The Musicon Five: Adventure (ON HOLD)

3.1| Shifting at 12

On the day of their 12th birthday, Jordan and I geared up for a hectic day.

"Jordan, they will likely shift today, it is going to be désordre. We need to tighten security."
"Lex, relax, I did that already. I changed the schedule today to something that's never been done before, and patrols have been doubled. There's no surprises, and we can count on my mom to wreck havoc on any rogue."
"Alright. Then, let's go."

In the backyard of the packhouse, the pack gathered to celebrate the birthdays of our children, Kenneth, Kyle, Esther, Evelyn, and Jordine. We had returned just yesterday from Gold Coast to celebrate Hazel's birthday, the daughter of Gamma Joanne and Sean.

Felicity agreed to become the deltas of Nikorsrim, along with Levi, on the condition that current deltas Bruce and Carrie Lao train them for five years. They have one son, named Nicolas Yin Kuai Tan. He is the only second cousin of mine, Ems, and Belle's children.

We had a great celebration, but festivities were cut short when Kenneth whispered in my ear that he didn't feel too well. I instantly knew my pups were going to shift.

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It had taken an hour of agony for all five.

"Meine Freuden," Jordan murmured as he gazed lovingly at our shifted pups. Pride radiated from him.

"How did you know that?"

"Well... our pups are our joys, and Meine Freuden by Chopin/Liszt is my favourite piece."

Kenneth's wolf was pure black but he had silver paws, with a white fermata on his back. He had perfect pitch & stopping time. Kyle had an alto clef on his fur, and his wolf was silver and gray. Kyle could make people blind and be invisible. Evelyn had a white treble against her silver fur, just like me. She had all the powers of the Musicals. Jordine had a silver bass clef, and her fur was a brilliant orange and yellow that made her look like living fire, although her ears and paws were silver. She was a sound manipulation wolf. Perplexed, my mind wandered back to when my children were eleven.

"Mom, Dad. I've seen a ghost on pack territory. It's not a regular spirit! For a head it has a triangle. It's body is a cello. For arms it has flutes, but they are silver. For legs it has violin bows. It speaks, but very quietly, and always asks you to lead it around the territory. Some do, but one of our pack members stole some cash this, well, "thing" had in the flute arm, then the cello part of the spirit turned into a viola. Now it's asking for you guys."

"Who stole the cash?" we inquired.

"Corvinna, and she's in a coma right now, severe silver burns on her arms. The burns will leave ugly scars."

"Alright, can you bring us to this spirit?"

It was a bit of a shock when we saw it. The triangle head struck itself three times, then the cello and triangle bent themselves, as if trying to bow to us. I tensed and held my breath, concerned for the cello, wondering if it would snap. Fortunately, it bent back up and returned to its original position. "You gave me quite a scare, spirit," I said as I released the breath I had been holding in.

"Haha... I am a spirit, but my name is Ling Ling. I just happen to be in my most common manifestation in the supernatural world. For those who help me, my body, or rather, my cello will shrink to a violin. Those who steal the cash in my flute arms will receive severe burns to their arms, and the cello will turn into a viola. How you know whether it's a violin or a viola is that when it turns to a violin, it will shrink to a viola size first, then violin. Allow me to demonstrate."

Jordan and I nodded. True to Ling Ling's words, the cello shrank not once, but twice. I easily recognized the size differences.

"So it's Ling Ling. I knew it! At least it's the right spirit. I also came across a bass. The jazz, one, you know, the instrument that the human Davie504 plays?" Jordine exclaimed.

"Oh dear, so you've met that bass... it's actually the Great Guitar of Destruction. A very, very bad spirit, the musical manifestation of Typhon. It's also known in the community of dragons as the enemy of all dragons... although it's dead, it was put in limbo for eternity for its despicable crimes. It can give baby dragons terrifying nightmares. But don't worry, it can't do anything to wolves. It's basically a powerless ghost just wandering around, and it can't even speak, unlike me. In dragon guilds, it's a massive green dragon ghost with snakes coming out of it. All it can do is float around. But knowing two of your pups are hybrids, please tell those two to stay away from it."

Jordine must have been blessed by Ling Ling, since I was a silver wolf, my pups couldn't be golden. Jordine had a greater power of fire than even Jordan. She could generate her own fire.

Esther had shifted last. Her wolf was a morph of grey and black, meaning she didn't have any Musical powers. However, at the lake we stood by, the water rose and splashed at the others, with Akira, her wolf, grinning mischievously. It was obvious that Esther had the water element. The others grunted, and Jordan and I shifted into our wolves.

Kyle and Jordine growled, with Kyle tossing dirt and Jordine shooting flames at Akira for payback. Jordan's wolf, Oscar, floated some rocks into the air. Kenneth's wolf, Cinebel, tried to grab the rocks, but Jordan lifted them higher. Kyle, entranced with the rocks, also tried to swat at them, before the rocks dropped. I grinned. He had the earth element. Jordan sent warm gusts of wind to dry off the pups' wet fur.

Suddenly, Cinebel (Kenneth) broke into a run, and quickly appeared further away from us using his stopping time power. Jordan tried to catch him with a root, but it dropped and fell on the ground. Oscar (Jordan) was stunned. I resorted to catching Cinebel (Kenneth) with a sound cage. I hummed C A G E. Immediately Cinebel (Kenneth) began flailing around, trapped. I trotted over and retrieved him.

[How are we going to shift back?] Jordine asked in the mindlink.

[All you need to do is to imagine yourself in human form. When most wolves shift back, their clothes will be shredded, but since you are Musicals and Elementals, you can shift back and forth without shredding our poor clothes.] I instructed them.

A few seconds later, they all shifted back. "Whoop-de-doop!" shouted Jordine, as she tried to blast sound at Kenneth. He fell over, groaning. "Yasss! I knocked him over!"

Evelyn shrugged. "I have plenty of ways to fight. At least I only need one type of training, with mom, while the others have elements to train with dad." 

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In the following weeks, the pups were training everyday. Once a week, we would drive to Twoset, bringing all. We had to keep their training with Jordan secret, as Lucia helped to train them. She had water and air. Robert still harbored resentment towards anyone with Elemental or Musical powers, of course except for me and Jordan. If he found out... he would probably attack. I could not kick him out of the pack, he had vital expertise in training Kyle to be the Head of our Intel Department.

Lucia told me that if Emilia had survived, she would be helping with training my pups too. Emilia had the fire element, but did not pass it to any of her children. Lucia seemed to be guarded whenever she spoke about Emilia.

As training progressed, I could tell more and more that she was hiding something. From the tone of her voice when she spoke to Jordine about her fire element, to how many tricks she could coach Jordine in despite not having the fire element, led me to have my suspicions. 

One thing about Lucia's behaviour that stood out was her absence once a month. She went to Sydney to spy for the Council, but always came back later. What was supposed to take five days took two weeks.

Just what was she hiding?