"Niaaaaaam!" As Niam heard his father call him he shifted into an owl and flew to the forest floor. He had been engaging in one of his favorite activities...napping in the trees. It scared some people but the feeling of being so high always made him more sleepy. Once he hit the ground he shifted back into his normal size and ran toward the clearing that held his home. Niam had been changing for four years now. When He changed for the first time when he was six, it became something he never forgot.
His mom had been coming home from her duties in town as a mage in the town defense squad. Sarah Drake was well known for her beautiful and deadly ice and water magic that was so useful for defense and training the new recruits that people often forgot the art she made. The ice sculptures were highly sought after for special events, and orders had even come in for the wedding of the Duke's son.
She walked down the road from town towards home and had heard his scream; and this was what Niam remembered most, the pain.
The first time he shifted he turned into the family dog, a big black shaggy dog named Jake who was almost twice Niam's size. He remembered looking at Jake and thinking about the routine the dog had, walking Sarah to town and then returning to watch over young Niam and his two sisters Lori and Jane, Lori being his younger sister by three years and Jane his older by three years, and their grandmother who helped take care of the house and the kids until her death, while their father worked as a soldier on the border between the Kingdom of the Moon, Doaria and the Kingdom of the Sun, Rilenta.
Niam looked at Jake and as had Jake looked back at him with his affection filled eyes, something in his mind shattered. Niam's bones began to break, elongating and shifting as fur sprouted from his arms and legs. His mother came into the clearing at a run hearing his scream and watched helplessly as Niam became the spitting image of his dog friend Jake.
At first Niam had panicked and run back and forth barking nonstop but then Jake had run in front of him and herded him back to the house. When Niam got to the house his grandmother and his mother had calmed him down and helped him find his way back to his human form.
That was the first time he changed but it began happening more and more often as if he couldn't control it. Sometimes into a dog sometimes a cat and eventually into birds and deer. He soon discovered that it hurt the most the first time he changed into an animal. The more he changed the less it hurt until it was almost second nature.
By working hard at it he, by age 8, could control and understand his change to a point where he wouldn't change when in town or out to dinner at a friends house. The key was understanding the animal he wanted to change into, if Niam knew the habits and basic behaviors of the animal he could gain their acceptance and then shift into said animal.
By now at age ten he only would change if he really focused. As he grew into his ability the change slowed and became manageable and eventually totally controllable. Some kids thought he was strange but his best friend Bran, son of the Head town mage, always told Niam he thought he was cool. If it hadn't been for Bran and Lia, the daughter of Mrs. Townsend the lovely town herbalist and healer, Niam would have grown up lonely for children his own age.
"Niam Drake!" boomed his father James while standing in the edge of the clearing, "If you don't get here in the next ten seconds you won't get any pie! I'll eat it all! Ahahhahahaha!"
"I'm coming dad!" Niam ran up to his father and together they walked up to the house and began cleaning up for dinner. As the his mother and sisters walked into the house from the open air stove covered by an awning, Niam sniffed the air hoping that his father had told the truth about the pie.
Seeing the hope on his face his mother laughed. "Don't worry there's pie and honey enough for both you and your father. Maybe enough for the rest of us too." Hearing this his father laughed again.
They all knew of Niam's love for pie that was only rivaled by his father. "Let's eat! I've been looking forward to some of your pie for weeks. Working on that wall with only rations has made me long for your home cooking Sarah."
Sarah looked up at her husband and raised her eyebrow "Only my cooking? Well then I guess that I can pack you some food and the great fire mage of the border can go back and train his troops. We can save this pie for the weekend fair."
James looked slightly panicked as Lori and Jane, Niam's younger and Older sister respectively, giggled. "Wait wait wait! You know I missed you too. You know I would stay even if you never cooked again." Niam's father towered over his wife as he pulled her close. "I'm ready to come home and stay home. If that's all right with you that is."
Sarah looked up at James, her eyes twinkling with mischief. "Well if you came home I might have to double our food orders. As well as having to share my bed again. I don't know that I want to give up any space on that big bed. Do I really want to put up with you again?" She pretended to think hard. "I guess I could get used to you being around again."
"Well I guess we'll leave it to our children then. What say you skallywags, do you want me to come home?"he asked. "You'll have to work hard and learn all you can in town. I won't let you slack off, like your mother does. Ow!"
Niam's mom shook the big wooden spoon she had used to wack James on the head. "Watch it or I'll show you slacking off."
James chuckled and looked back at Niam and his sisters. "What do you say kids. How do you feel about me staying around the house from now on."
Jane rushed forward and wrapped her hands around her neck. "I have been hoping you would come home daddy! I miss you so much when you are away!"
Lori being only seven but having a talent for mischief said "I thought you were worried about what he would think 'bout you and Jackson. You said you were scared that he might get angry."
James leaned back and raised his eyebrows at his daughter. "The Mucullogh kid?" As she blushed and nodded after shooting a glare towards her younger sister. James looked to his wife. "Well at least I know that his parents would have raised him right. What do you think."
Jane sounds around and looked hopefully at her mother missing the wink that her dad sent to Sarah.
'She doesn't know that they are messing with her.' thought Niam. 'I heard them talking about this when we got up this morning.' Niam slid forward in his chair and looked on with interest to see how they would tease his older sister.
"Well I don't know." Sarah said slowly. "He might be more trouble than he's worth. He may be the shopkeepers son but I haven't heard if he wants to stick around and take over for his father or run off to be a soldier."
"Please oh please oh please say I can see him! He does want to stay and he wants to come out and talk to you both about beginning to court me. He knows that you respect the old ways. Please mother?"
Niam couldn't hold in his laughter anymore and cracked up. His father soon joined him as Jane turned bright red upon realizing they were pulling her leg.
"He has already come out to speak to us and we have spoken to his parents. If you both continue to want a relationship in a year when you turn 14 then we will give our blessing to an engagement and when you turn 16 you can marry. He is a couple of years older so he might have to wait a while but we will allow you to continue seeing him."
Niam watched as his sister danced around the room, dirty blonde hair flying out behind her, thanking her father for his permission and looking relieved that this had gone the way it had.
'Oh well' Niam thought. 'It was fun while it lasted.'
After the hearty meal and the many helpings of pie the family sat in front of the house and discussed the improvements that were going to have to be made and how the house would need to be expanded as the children grew. Already Jane had set up a curtain in the loft shared by her and Niam claiming the need for more privacy.
Niam rolled his eyes while thinking that he would never understand girls. Or what Jackson saw in his sister. After all she was just a girl. Not like she was a soldier or a storyteller who was always so interesting to watch and listen to.
While his mother and father talked about the day and how they would need to get to work early the next day. Niam noticed a smell and then something something flickering above the trees.
"Dad? Is something burning in town?"
As his mom and his dad shot to their feet Niam got a terrible feeling in his gut. "Niam, run to the house and get my blade. Jane take your sister's hand. We're going to go into town to see what is happening."
Sarah looked at her husband. "Why do you need your sword if it's only a fire."
Niam brought his father the big sword which had been hung on the back of the door and looked on as he slung the long blade around his hips. "We live close enough to the border that it might be a raid. I don't want to risk going into town without protection."
As they headed towards town Niam's father asked him to fly up as a bird and see if he could see what was going on. Upon seeing the men were in the street fighting and that people were being taken away as captives Niam flew back down and told his father.
When they reach the edge of town Niam's parents hid them in the big hollow tree that many kids in the town used as a fort . After instructing them not to come out until everything was over, James took his wife's hand and ran towards the sounds of battle.