Chapter 75 - CH.74

Johanna, still restless from the argument she had with Basil earlier, wasn't able to fall asleep, and since there were some she still wanted to test out to see if Molly had inherited some of her shapeshifting abilities, Johanna decided it would be efficient if she just did it now while she wasn't able to sleep at all. So Johanna sat up again, stood up, and walked over to the door, hesitating for a few seconds since she wasn't sure if exposing her secret another time wouldn't completely destroy the relationship between Johanna and her family. But deciding to wait any longer was no longer an option for Johanna since Basil would tell her sooner rather than later, which is why she silently opened the door, walking over to the room where Molly was currently staying. 

Knocking silently, Johanna stood before the door, being kind of nervous, but there was no time for regrets since Molly opened the door, greeting Johanna. Johanna entered Molly's room, where Molly offered her to sit down on her bed. After sitting down, she finally began explaining the situation to Molly.

"Today I showed dad something I kept a secret from the two of you, and he got quite angry, and we had a little argument, and since you're probably curious about what it is, I will show you."

"Oh, ok, mom, so what is it that you want to show me?"

But just like with Basil, she didn't want to slowly explain it to her shed but rather just show it to her. Even though this could be the reason that the conflict even started, her decision remained the same, so Johanna slowly started to transform her form into that of a cute little dog, hoping that the cuter form may decrease the chance of a scared reaction, but unlike she thought, Molly showed a completely contrived reaction to Basil. Molly smiled at first, then hugged Johanna in her dog form.

"Oh, thank god, mom."

Johanna could show no other reaction than utter confusion. Molly, who noticed Johanna's dumbfounded face, started to explain the situation better to Johanna.

"About three weeks ago, I noticed that while I was chopping up some meat to eat, I was about to accidentally cut into my finger with the kitchen knife, but instead of that happening, my finger suddenly bended away in a totally unnormal way. I was quite surprised, but as it quickly returned to normal, I didn't mind it. But the night after, I was curious about what happened, so I simply tried bending my finger again, and to my surprise, I succeeded, so I continued experimenting with that power, but after moving on to bigger things, I simply fell unconscious, but luckily I woke up the next day with only a slight headache."

"So that's what happened?" Johanna had turned back into her human form so that she could respond to Molly's explanation.

"I can clear up a few things. First, you can change anything, not just bend your body parts, as you might have seen already. The second thing is that you probably inherited this ability from me, and since you were never in a dangerous situation, you never had to use it. The reason you fell unconscious is probably because you lack enough magical power to freely shift into anything you want. and this is also the reason why dad and mom fought. I kept this ability a secret, but I hope you and Basil will forgive me."

"Mom, don't worry. Im sure that dad is just surprised, and I have no problem with this, since this ability is quite useful for survival out here if you two were to not be around, but do you think the children will also inherit the shapeshifting ability?"

"Im not entirely sure, since if this ability is genetically inherited, that would mean that the gene would weaken over time if it isn't a dominant one, and since you only discovered your powers this late and since bending limbs already takes up a large amount of your magical power, I think that over the generations the magical efficiency of shapeshifting will decrease until it goes completely extinct if the gene isn't refreshed by "purer blood." But right now, this is all just a thought that I haven't proven, but we can test it out with your child Julia; if her shapeshifting efficiency is way lower than yours, I would say that my theory is proven; otherwise, I have to think of other reasons."

"Thanks, mom. Now can you tell me something else?"

As the night went on, with Johanna explaining to Molly more about magical power, like that shapeshifting was a one-time magical power cost, and more general thoughts about shapeshifting, Molly became more and more interested in this whole topic. Molly trained and experimented the whole night with Johanna feeding into her magic pool so that she wouldn't fall unconscious again. By the end of the night, Johanna estimated that her shapeshifting efficiency required only half of what it took before, which she measured by the amount of magiacal power required for a similar transformation.

After training for nearly the whole night, Johanna walked back into her room, leaving the now completely exhausted Molly in her room to sleep. While Johanna was also tired, she didn't feel like sleeping now, so she only laid in bed to relax a little bit until Basil woke up and she could apologise.