The Girl with an Owl

Chapter 35

As they settled down in Ajana's room, she wondered how odd all that had to be to Kieran.
He went from his war-ridden world to Mag, to study in school, that must all feel so trivial to him.
Learning things in a classroom while his people fought and bled must be awful, so Ajana couldn't really blame him for not being so friendly towards any of them.
Mag was keeping him away from his family and at any time something horrible could happen to them, and he wouldn't be there to protect them, at least what was left of them.

It didn't seem fair that he was blackmailed for small silvers of help that Mag was willing to offer to his people and that he had to go from fighting from the freedom of his people to a human girl's room to study. Well, not exactly human but that was how she still saw herself.

Lost as she was in her own thoughts, she failed to notice Kieran staring at her, immediately. Once she did she realized that she was just sitting there quietly for what was probably quite some time.
As the sweet smell of roses drifted in from the garden to be registered by her sense, she noticed that Kieran glared at her and was probably doing that for quite some time before she noticed.

"Do you want us to study or are you going to stare me to death?" He asked.
It took some time for Ajana to snap out of her thoughts and focus, not on the relaxing smells around her and reminiscing about life but to focus on the elf in her room.

"I thought we were past being rude," Ajana said snappishly.
"Yes, you are right I do apologize. You just got lost in the forest of your thoughts, and we have a lot of work to do, especially since tomorrow we have to clean the oceans." Kieran said.

"I thought we didn't have school tomorrow? That everyone is celebrating their holiday or whatever it is called here?" Ajana said.
"We don't, but Bob said that we still had to endure our punishment and start cleaning the oceans since that doesn't have to be done inside the school.
Don't worry you will still get to participate in the festivities since we will be cleaning the oceans in the early morning." Kieran said.

"Isn't that against the rules?" Ajana was perplexed.
"Probably, but do you want to risk asking and getting in even more trouble?" Kieran asked.

It was clear to Ajana that he made a good point. No matter how unfair it sounded to her, she deiced to just do what she was told not wanting to get Kieran into even more trouble.
Instead of thinking about things that were wrong with Mag, she decided to focus on the job at hand and the reason why they met up in the first place.

"What spell would you like us to do, since you are more experienced in the magic domain? " Ajana asked.
"How about a transformation spell?" He asked.
"A transformation spell?" she asked confused.
"Yes, like turning a person into an animal or an object, even in other people," Kieran explained.

"Isn't that too difficult?" Ajana was curious to know.
"Well, it is for a beginner, but I have been performing magic my whole life. Also, Wallace did say that we can find all the books we might need in the library. Maybe tonight I can catch you up on the basics, and we can decide on the transformation we want to do and tomorrow after cleaning up the oceans we can get some books from the library?" Kieran asked.

"Yes, that sounds good because all I know about transformations come from the movies, and they are not so reliable," Ajana said.

Having no idea what the movies were, thinking they were some old, unreliable archives, Kieran decided not to ask, but to focus on explaining to someone who had never done magic how to do it.

Even though they had been briefed about Ajana and her world many times he still struggled in understanding certain words and expression, but at least he could copy their speech patterns, and he could understand her well enough to communicate.

"So what are the basics?" Ajana asked interrupting his musings.
"Hm, that is a good question," Kieran said.
He stayed quiet contemplating how to answer the question.

"Okay, so I am not very good at explaining things, but I will do my best.

All magical beings are in their basic forms that they were born with, but most of us have the potential to transform, whether by using a spell, general magic or something else.

I was thinking we could use a potion since it will be the easiest one for you to do.

Anyway, in every magical being, there is a T-hormone which under right circumstances, in our case with the use of a potion, can initiate the metamorphoses.
Once stimulated, it starts the process of transformation." Kieran said.

"How long does the process take?" Ajana asked.
"Well, it depends on the magic used, most commonly twenty-four hours but our use of potions can bring it down to an hour or so," Kieran said.

"During the process, one might slowly start developing a tail, or other body parts characteristic for the target of their transformation.
Slowly but surely the whole body starts changing until the full transformation is effected." Kieran said.

"Does it hurt?" Ajana couldn't help but ask.
"As far as I know it's mostly a painless process unless you make a mistake. That won't happen to us since we have me," Kieran assured her.

"Once all of your regular characteristics disappear you can be said to have fully transformed." He added.
"Isn't that disorienting?" Ajana said.
"Well, it can be, depending on what your chosen transformation is. My suggestion is that we transform into something that has a similar size as us to avoid the size disorientation that comes with it." Kieran said.

That was a lot of information for Ajana to process, especially because she didn't want the essence of who she was, of how she saw herself, to change, but she trusted Kieran enough to accept his suggestions.
While she was trying to digest all of that, Kieran kept looking at her with obvious curiosity, trying to assess how much his suggestion scared her, how much she trusted him.

"Alright then which animals will we be?" She asked.
Surprised as he was by her immediate acceptance of an idea that most people found odd, he still did have an answer prepared.

"I think we should turn into our favorite animals." He said without missing a beat.
"Mine is a wolf. What is yours?" He asked.

For Ajana it was a very difficult question to answer since she loved all animals almost equally, but she tried to focus her mind on the animals that were close to her size so that it would be easier for her to adjust.

"How about a chimpanzee? Would it be too small?" She asked after long deliberation.
"No, that would be just perfect," Kieran said.
He was thoroughly surprised by her animal choice since girls usually loved unicorns or horses, but it became clear to him that Ajana was anything but an ordinary girl.

"Wait, but would your wolf attack anyone? Will you be able to control it?" She asked.
Worry was so obvious in her whole body that it felt as if it was pouring off of every pore of her body, it was obvious that she cared more than others ever had.

"No, I won't attack anyone because it will still be me, just a different form of me. It's just changing from one shape to another, our essence, who we are, stays the same with a few unwanted additions." He said.

"Such as?" She asked.
Kieran sighed deeply before answering her.
"Well, I might have the need to howl at the moon and you might feel a strong craving for bananas, things like that," Kieran said.

Satisfied with his answer Ajana went through some other details with him and after that, they decided to call it a night so as not to be late for their punishment in the morning.

After all, a long day awaited them. After Kieran left Ajana couldn't help but feel worried about what the next day might entail but after a while just staring at the ceiling in fear she did manage to fall asleep.