Greek Times for a Future Girl

Aftermath: Part 5

The next morning greeted me with a warm sun and the smell of olive trees. It felt nice to feel such warmth considering I spent almost a whole month waking up in the Underworld, so it was a nice change of things. I almost forgot how nice it felt to wake up to sunlight, that is, until I remembered that my leg was still busted up from that wolf fight the night before. I knew thinking that me turning into an imp was all a dream was too good to be true.

"Morning, sleepy-head."

I saw Pain and Panic walking towards me when they saw that I had finally woken up.

"Hi." I greeted with a yawn.

"How're you feeling?" Panic asked me.

"A little better." I answered as I sat up, wincing at the shooting pain that came up my leg. "Of course, my leg still hurts."

"Think you can walk?" Pain asked.

I gave a shrug. "Let's find out."

They helped me up and I took my first step on my leg, I managed to walk on it despite the small aches.

"That's not so bad." Pain pointed out.

"Yeah, I mean, I might limp for a while, but at least I can move it." I said with a whiff of optimism.

"But it's weird." Panic said as he stared at my wound. "She should've been healed by now."

I gave an unsure shrug. "Maybe it's an age thing? I am fifteen years old."

"Well... It might be possible." Pain thought about it.

Panic shook his head. "Nah, we were able to heal ourselves when we were much younger than her."

"Then it's probably Hecate's jinx." Pain concluded. "That might also explain why she can't shapeshift."

"Actually, we don't know that for sure." I pointed out. "I only tried twice when I got jinxed. So, who's to say that I can't?"

I knew it was far-fetched pointing out that logic, but I couldn't help it. If being an imp meant that I had to learn how to shapeshift, then why learn on my own? Why not get the best shapeshifters in the world to teach me the basics?

They both looked at each other supporting slightly concerned looks before looking back at me.

"I don't know." Pain said. "Shapeshifting's pretty difficult to learn."

"Especially if you've never tried it before." Panic added. "It came naturally to us."

"Then teach me." I told them. "Teach me to shapeshift."

"You sure?" they looked at me with the same concerned looks as before.

I nodded excitedly. "Yeah. I wanna learn."

They thought about it for a while before giving me their final answer.

"Okay. We'll teach you." Panic finally said.

"Awesome!" I flew in an excited twirl -my wings feeling better after what happened yesterday- before coming back down to the ground. "Can you show me how to turn into a huge dragon?!"

"Don't bite off more than you can chew, Aria." Panic shut down that idea.

"Yeah, he's got a point." Pain added. "If you're gonna do this, you gotta start off with something easy."

"Like those snakes you guys sometimes turn into?" I suggested.

"That sounds good." Pain nodded at my suggestion.

Panic stepped up to demonstrate how to shapeshift. "Watch and learn: First, think about what you wanna be, then loosen up, and-"

With one quick movement of his body, Panic turned into a teal rattlesnake. "Sssee?"