"Now, close your eyes and concentrate on what you want to be"
"You make it sound so much easier than it is..."
Two weeks have passed since we left our home. Stella has been teaching me how to use magic.
"It's easier than making potions. It's in our blood. We were born with the ability to control and mold nature around us."
'We were born with this...' Is that why the world hates us? Because we can do something that they can't?
That's what I thought at first. However, Stella said that it's not that simple. If all we had to do were stop using magic, this conflict would have ended a long time ago.
Mother never told me about the history of our people. And the only reason that Stella knows anything about it is because she read a very vague and old book that mom had hidden in her room.
It also mentioned something about never bending to other people's wills and a promise made a long time ago.
"I think I got it."
"Good. Now imagine something about you turning into what you imagined."
I take a deep breath and do as my sister says.
I feel something strange running through my body. Something that I never felt before, but I can tell it was always there.
A warmth that surges from deep beneath my body, all the way up to the surface. This warmth then slowly starts to converge in my arms and hands.
I can feel them changing as I envision them like an animal's arms and claws.
When I open my eyes, I can see my arms and hands covered with fur, and my fingers now have pointy sharp claws at the end.
"Good job! You're better at this than at making potions." Stella praises me as she takes a closer look at my hands.
"You said it yourself. We were born to do this..." I look at my now transformed hands with mixed feelings.
Stella notices it and kindly grabs my hands.
"You know, the 'Arkadia' name was something our grandmother came up with."
I look at her, confused.
"But mom always said that our family preferred to use potions."
"Well, that's true. But that wasn't always the case. Our grandmother changed our family name after something that happened in the past."
"And how do you know all that?"
She stands up.
"Aunt Marie told me."
Aunt Marie is our mother's older sister. She only came to our house one time and stayed there for one week. I remember her as a very kind person while she talked to my sister and me. However, when she talked to our mother, she was always cold and distant. Almost as if she didn't like her.
"So, what is our true family name?" I ask
"I don't know. Why don't we go there and ask her ourselves?" Stella says with a smile.