Von woke early the next morning knowing he needed to prepare for the challenges ahead. First, he would wear himself down with Master Thain before facing the challenges an hour before midday. As usual, he did a quick clean of his face and body using the water in the basin before waking Monica. He waited on her to do the same before they both went to the refectory for another an empowering breakfast. Knowing this breakfast would make it easier to learn and to battle, he felt it was the best choice.
Thank you, system. Knowing this made me feel better already.
Not yet, please. It might distract me during the challenges later.
Von and Monica each left for their morning lessons. Monica to the Cavern of Darkness and Von to the grove to meet with Thain in order to learn a little more about transformation. He arrived in the natural grove and sat on a stone bench meant to hold a number of beings. Looking around, he noticed a variety of animals lived within the grove. Since Master Thain wasn't present yet, he decided to explore a little and began walking around the edge of the grove extending his aura to warn him should the dwarven prankster decide to appear out of nowhere and startle him.
Partway through his circle of the bench, he discovered many of the creatures seemed to have an abundance of aura themselves. As he was examining them individually, he noticed a peregrine with its head to the side as if eying him. Once Von pushed his aura to check out the bird, he felt the aura as belonging to a human or maybe an elf, not a natural bird. Somehow, through his aura the bird gave off the scent of weeds or maybe tall grass after a storm. This was completely odd.
He checked out the small brown rabid who emitted the scent of fresh water while its companion gave off a metallic scent. Other birds smelled of smoke, books, even the scent of a grave. The deer several feet into the woods seemed to have its own strong aura of its own and smelled of several animals. Thinking of this, he sent forth a few strands of lavender mental energy in an attempt to use myalomancy to see what the animals were thinking.
The first bird, a blue jay, was thinking, 'I don't think he sees me,' while the closest rabbit thought, 'maybe if Master Thain wears him out enough, I will try to get an early seed in the challenges and win.' His neighbor pondered, 'I want to see what Master Thain will teach him, yet I don't want to get caught spying,' while a squirrel was wondering if she would pass this challenge. He chose to focus on the squirrel as it seemed to provide new information.
Acting as though he didn't realize the nearby animals were all students transformed into animals, he thought about what Master Thain taught him of transforming himself, then mixed the grey threads of transformation magic into a weave, combined it with choromancy binding the weaves together into a whip-like form. Once he created what he wanted, he lashed out at the closest rabbit who either didn't see it coming or something because it didn't dodge at all.
Making contact with the rabbit, he remembered leaching life energy through blood magic and attempted the same, but instead of blood, he attempted to withdraw the transformation energy infused into the large brown rabbit.
Sensing something amiss, the rabbit made an attempt to flee only to discover he was just out of reach of the ground. He could feel himself being forcibly reverted back into a human male. Try as he might, he gathered every bit of transformation magic and did his best to keep his form. Sadly, something was ripping it from him as fast as he could gather it and soon, he was once again fully human teenager with one small exception which stayed exactly as it was when he was as a rabbit.
Feeling a little smug, Von looked at the brown-haired boy and said, "I too hope you get an early seed." The teenager's face turned red as he walked toward Von. Von then added the amethyst energies and healing energies to his weave forcing the teen's body to more quickly digest the fluids he'd drunk during breakfast. Before he could reach Von, the former rabbit felt nature's call becoming more and more urgent. Turning away from the boy who revealed his presence, he dashed in the direction of the nearest necessary building.
Von looked around the clearing as the animals were starting to hide. Before he could decide on who was next, a wail came from the area to which the brown-haired teen ran moments ago. Von released all but the small measure of transformative energies he was using to keep the rabbit part as it was and immediately lashed out at the second rabbit to draw the same energies from her. She was also a brown-haired older teen girl with a narrow face, as she exhibited no negative thoughts when he listened to her, Von left everything as normal on her.
The other animals commenced to moving away while trying to seem natural. Von considered how long it would take to transform all of them back before deciding the whip method would take too long. System, can I turn them all back at once without concentrating on one at a time?
How much energy would this take?
Von decided. He enhanced his wear adding protective energies expanded it about two hundred meters making it semi-solid allowing only earth, stone, and trees to pass through then pulled it back to himself. The barrier hung up on a few trees as they changed back to elves, merfolk, a minotaur and even a goblinkin. Each pause in the retraction was due to something reverting to its original form. The peregrine chose to land on the ground nearby, but several other birds found themselves humans, dwarves, or half-elves clinging to trees as their transformation essence was stripped from them.
As more rabbits lost their form and birds decided to land before losing theirs, Von's shield hung up on the deer. Adding more energy to the deer still didn't allow it to move. He walked closer to the deer drawing the sphere in on the other sides. The deer didn't move, but the peregrine and squirrel kept pace with the boy. Finally, he flooded the deer with as much essence as he could manage until the last remining bird transformed into the dwarf Thain. "Give it up, Von. Your never gonna change her back. She's a yaksha—a nature spirit—even I couldn't transform her."
Von pulled what little energy he could back into himself while staring at the deer. Once all but one of his weavings were gone, the deer turned into a diaphanous woman of indeterminable age. Smiling at Von, the woman whispered, "The reason you couldn't revert me to my 'natural' form is I don't use transformation magic to change forms. I am a spirit whose natural form can be anything. Your weave was strong enough to notice something awry yet couldn't determine what it was. This alone is impressive for a young human."
"Thain turned to the creature, bowed deeply, the said thank you lady for allowing me to borrow your time. You may return to your class." Looking at the squirrel he raised an eyebrow. "Okay, Theresa, you win. You may choose one and only one of your affinities, and I shall acquire your focus. I will also recommend you to Myra." To Von, he motioned in the vector the spirit had gone. "Myra is the yaksha. She teaches advance students since she can always see any weave except blood and time."
Astonished the spirit was a teacher here, he took no interest as the squirrel returned to a middle-aged woman. "Thank you, Master Ironthrone, and thank you, Von for allowing me to remain until last. I know you let me stay shifted, but why?"
Smiling the boy looked up at her. "You only wanted to pass Master Thain's challenge. Everyone else wondered about me or if I could discover them, or about beating me in the challenges later this morning. You just thought of success for yourself. Mrs. Cooper taught me to help those who are trying to help themself."
"Since this is the case, thank Mrs. Cooper for me as well." The curtseyed to Von and the dwarf before walking down the past leading toward where the nature spirit disappeared."
"Theresa, before you go, might you give the boy a drop or three of your blood? I've been talking with Hellyne, he will be able to use it to recover his energy without gaining anything from you which might skew this morning's results."
Von looked at her in awe as the tip of her finger was surrounded by the white essence of healing before splitting open slightly allowing exactly three drops of blood to drip into the air. It slowly floated to him riding on air infused spatial essence while healing essence caused the tiny cut disappeared.