The Shapeshifter

Dragon Cove

Sirius assumed that professor Jason was looking for US instead and that we should follow the simple yet difficult to spot clues that would lead us to them. I felt unsure about the idea, but I agreed anyways. It seemed like my best bet.

We got on Dagger, got off Dagger, and also scoured the ground for tracks, footprints and also based on the tracks and items we found, we concluded that they were headed towards the Dragon Cove, the most isolated and dangerous island in the whole of Mystica. We had to follow them, or they might never ever have a chance to escape again.

We climbed onto Dagger and we took off into the now dark and silent night, filled with the eerie hoots of owls hiding in trees and also the faint sound of little rats and mice scurrying on the forest floor which was littered with fallen leaves and there was no sign of any civilization whatsoever. Dagger flew quick and fast, like a falcon, swooping through the air like a stunt plane in a freestyle competition.

On Dagger, Sirius and I did not talk much, barely uttering a single word until we finally landed on Dragon Cove, which seemed to me like the flight took a million hours, but in fact, it only was around two minutes.

When we approached Dragon Cove, we instantly saw the gigantic structure looming over us, kind of like the Leaning Tower of Pisa but much, much more advanced in technology. I saw gates with lots of numeric keypads and also number combinations and also finger and retinal scanners, like a top secret base in a Mission: Impossible movie.

Sirius put his finger to his lips and we both crept as silently as we could along the cold grey walls that surrounded the structure. I turned and looked through a tiny hole in the grey wall, a small flaw unable to be noticed by anyone except me. I put my eye to the hole and I saw professor Jason and Luke and Jessica standing around in a small circle, discussing something. I wanted to put my ear at the hole and listen but when I did that, all I could hear was the muffled voices of the three of them. I heard the words, 'David' and 'Sirius', but that was all I could hear.

Sirius dragged me towards the gate that was not protected by any numeric keypads but was instead secured by a heavy, rusty, green lock. Sirius leaned towards the lock and took up a twig and started to pick the lock, and after a few seconds, the lock finally came off. He took off the lock and went inside. I followed closely behind, even more unsure of my decision.

He wanted me to break in? Was he mad? Did he see the guards lined up in neat rows behind him? Did he see that they had guns slung over their shoulders and looked mean? I sighed uncomfortably and we went inside another big building, much like the Institute, but a little bit bigger.

I yawned sleepily, seeing the morning sun rise up from the East. This made a colorful effect that looked like a rainbow, but with more reds and yellows than the other colors. But this sunrise though, had a pink and purplish color added to it, which created a deep and rich mix of colors.

As fear started to take over and my senses heightened, we stopped next to a glass room and listened intently for what they were saying. "Maybe you should shapeshift, so you can hear properly." Sirius told me, eyes fixed on the people in the glass room, with an expressionless face. It was the first time that he had talked after the Griffin ride, and I had to admit, I kind of jumped when he said that. He was a very mysterious and unpredictable guy.

We followed his plan, and I shapeshifted into a bat, one of the creatures with excellent hearing and good night vision, able to create sounds that were too high-pitched for humans to hear. It was also a very stealthy animal, flying from place to place without anyone noticing. The bat, was also an animal that Sirius had taught him how to shapeshift into completely.  

I felt my spine grow shorter and my jawline grow bat-like, and the world around me started getting smaller and smaller, and I felt sharp, pointy ears stick out of my head, and I felt my eyes become smaller, and beady, and my skin started to spring little brown hairs rapidly, in the end becoming fur. My arms became longer but smaller, and wings started growing in between my arms, and soon enough, I could create the high-pitched squeaks of a bat. I flapped my wings, and I could fly around and hang from the ceiling.

I quickly flew into the glass room when someone had opened the doors and I hung upside down from the ceiling, using my good sense of hearing to pick up faint noises from the inner room of the glass dome. I flew swiftly, and without anyone noticing me, I slipped into the inner room and found... Luke and Jessica! I wanted to wave at them and say hello, but they didn't look like they wanted to escape. They wanted to stay at Dragon Cove with professor Jason! As I saw my friends transform not so fully into different animals, I shapeshifted into a lizard, and started running up the walls, listening for the slightest sound that might help me and Sirius.