His head was spinning and it felt as if a thousand bees swarmed inside, creating havoc. He heard the littlest of sounds– the dripping of mulma which had been spilt on a table, shifters shouting and talking as they tried to get things back to normal. He also smelt things he knew he hadn't been able to smell when he came to the bar earlier in the evening; the harsh but sweet smell of mulma, stale sweat, and women in heat.
He felt as if he was having an out-of-body experience like he was seeing things anew and with new eyes.
"Rocky," he heard his name being called but the sound felt so far away, like a distant echo. His head pounded furiously and his hand reached out to hold it but before it came in contact with his head, everything blacked out.
He woke up the morning of the next day. River was by his bedside mixing some unknown concoction in a bowl. When she saw that he was awake she smiled and said. "Finally, you are awake."
"What happened?" he asked.
"You became unconscious yesterday and you were brought here by Ash and Storm," she said.
He tried to sit up but groaned as his head ached. His body ached everywhere as if he was run over by a bus and his joints felt stiff.
"Careful," River said. "You are about to make your first shift, that is why you are in a lot of pain."
"Does it always hurt this much?" He asked in a breathless voice from the effort it took to make himself comfortable.
"No. Only for the first three or four shifts but it would hurt badly on your first shift but not to worry as tonight we worship mother Gaea and the ritual would make it easier for you." She gave him a bowl of the concoction she was mixing. "Here, drink this up."
He took it and drank it. His face scrunched up in disgust from how bad it tasted. "Oh, God. What is this?"
"It would give you strength and make the pain bearable." He closed his eyes and forced himself to drink the medicine up. "Anything to keep me from feeling this much pain," he thought.
Rocky lay on the bed after River left, thinking about what had happened. Why had Ice attacked him? He has done nothing to provoke anyone in Gaea'na, then he remembered that Ice said something about being with his girl. Was there anything going on between Ash and Ice besides, when he met Ash, she was with Ice?
"Rocky," he heard his name only to look up and see Ash.
"Are you all right?" she asked with a worried look on her face. She sat on the bed close to him and he could smell her. She smells sweet and spicy.
"Yes, I am."
"I'm sorry about last night," she said.
"Ice was the person you fought within the forest the day I met you, is he not?" He asked
"Yes."
"Why were you fighting that day?"
"It's complicated."
"Complicated, hmm."
They sat in silence for a while.
"The festival, would you come? Ash asked.
"Yes," Rocky answered. "If I won't get attacked by some guy."
The moon was full that night and it cast a silvery hue in the forest, giving it a mystical look. The festival had begun and men and women danced around a fire, stark naked. They danced and chanted in an ancient version of Grale. Every other shifter who was not naked and dancing, stood by chanting. Soon their bodies began to glow and a strange aura filled everywhere. Soon people began to shift, changing to their animal form.
Rocky had stood behind a tree watching everything and at first, he felt nothing but then it began with a tingling sensation on his hands which moved to his feet then his head. Soon, it became an unbearable pain, like liquid fire was coursing through his veins. His bones began to break and it was excruciatingly painful. His hands changed to become powerful paws and his fingers elongated and turned into claws. His whole body transformed and his scream changed into a loud and powerful roar, which resounded across the whole forest.
When the pains dissipated, his body had shifted to those of a dragon. He was a silvery colour with glowing scales and his eyes glowed goldenly. His wings were long and powerful and he felt the urge to flap them and soar high in the sky. Everyone stopped and stared at him. They had not expected to see a dragon shifter there as it was only true blood that possessed the art of shifting into a dragon, which was the most powerful form a shifter could take. "True blood, it's a true blood."
Rocky was oblivious to these whispers as he flapped his wings and took flight. The wind rushed past and he could see the human city from afar looking tiny with thousands of flickering lights.
"So this is what it feels like to shift," he thought to himself. He could feel the power flowing through his veins and when he breathed out with his nose, large rings of smoke came out. He flew and flew high until he was no longer visible to the shifters below.
Shifting back into his human form was also painful for Rocky and he was exhausted by the time he had shifted, so he lay on the dirt floor, naked and breathing heavily. All he wanted at that moment was to sleep and rest his aching muscles, a different feeling from what he felt as a dragon. He closed his eyes and drifted off into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Larsfar was made the capital of the shifter's world for a reason as it was there that the early people learned how to tap into mother earth's source and shapeshift. It was a well-populated city with shifters of different racial backgrounds as they come from different parts of the world.
The buildings closely resemble those in cities but in Larsfar, the buildings had ancient writings depicted in pictogram– ancient Grale. Here, the use of modern technology and invention was unknown as the people used magic and the magic in Larsfar could be felt in the air, an energy like electricity.
True blood were the descendants of those who learned how to shapeshift first and the dragon shifters were at the topmost place of the power hierarchy in the shifter's world, and they ruled in Larsfar, controlling the city's use of magic and power.
The city was unusually quiet, and the night sky was alive with thousands of twinkling stars and only the thrumming of magic could be heard. In a dark and lonely alley, a man wearing a black hoodie walked. He opened a door and entered inside. Inside the door, some steps led downwards. He walked down the steps without any light, but his eyes could see in the dark. It was cold and damp inside.
The steps led to a large room underground with five doors connected to it. It was lit up with candles and a fireplace with a chimney going upwards. The roaring fire in the fireplace warmed the room. A throne made of stone stood atop a raised platform on one side of the room and seven men dressed in black robes stood in front of it. They turned when they felt his presence.
"Welcome," one of the men said. His voice echoed across the rather empty room. The man brought down his hoodie, revealing his scarred, misshapen face. It was Wind. He walked to the throne and sat down.
"Brothers, tis a fine night, is it not?" he asked rhetorically.
"My lord," the man who had spoken before began. "We want to know if you found the true blood."
"Yes I have, but then I lost him as he is not in that human town but not to worry, he would come looking for us," Wind said in his soft voice. He thought about the card he gave to Rocky and hopes that he uses it. "Right now, we need more men as the cause we fight for is not an easy one. We need people working inside the Statehouse."
"We have already sent some men. They work as employees inside the Statehouse."
"Good." Wind said as he reclined further into his chair. "Now leave."
The men trudged out, going through one of the doors connected to the room.
He rested his head on his palms and he wondered where the young true blood was. "Soon, very soon I would be sitting in the high seat of the Statehouse."
Wind wanted to take over the Statehouse, which was equivalent to a palace or America's white house. It houses all the leading true blood and it was there that crucial decision concerning the shifter's world was decided. It was ruled by Tornado, a male dragon shifter who ruled with an iron fist.
Wind was born to shalor parents; people who had never shifted and so he had grown up at the bottom of the power chain. He had watched his parents work all day, toiling and doing all the dirty work for the other shifters– the shifters who were privileged to be true blood and they had lived in an unkept part of the town reserved for shalors, in a dirty two bedroom apartment.
Seeing all the injustice being given to the people he knew just because they were unfortunate to not have shifted made him angry, and he vowed to let the true blood pay. Luckily, he shifted into an eagle at the age of sixteen and this elevated his parent's status. They moved out of shalortown which was the name of the place they lived and moved upper city blood Larsfar.
He started a rebellious group to go against the true and take control of Larsfar and eventually the whole shifter's world. True blood would fall one day, and it was him Wind, who was going to make it happen and rule in their stead.