Changes occur whether one is aware of them or not. Usually, changes are noted when they are of the body. Occaisionally, they are seen when they are of the mind. Both types of changes are extremely powerful, and all sentient creatures go through them daily. Naturally, most changes and deviations from one's established norm are small and imperceptible. Every now and again, however, something goes terribly wrong or terribly right, and a major change occurs.
Changes of the mind are usually subtle happenings. They often are merely compilations and reflections of the doings for the day, week, month, year, whatever. However, one can have many experiances that show him an entirely different light. For these proceedings, a large deviation from the previous self can be noted.
Changes of the body are also small on a daily basis, generally speaking. They can be anything from the simple growth that goes on in a human's hair and nails to a fading of the scales of a reptile. Any simple physical change can occur in a day's time, as can any major and complex change. One's arm can be severed half-way through an hour. He can accidently fling something at his eye, causing him to lose its sight. Evolution can take hold suddenly, and one is entirely transformed before the eyes of his peers.
The lattermost of the examples for the physical changes happens quite frequently in magical creatures. They are evolving minutely in spirit daily. Imperceptibly parts of their outter coverings wear out in an hour's time. However, there are times during which they go through marvelous changes, such as, in the case of Clarinet, the step from the wyrm to the shrape stages of the Bishel dragon. Such an event is a wonder to behold.
*Sandrylene,* Clarinet calls. She is only slightly larger than the normal wyrm at this point in time. She has been upon the cusp of her shrape stage for quite a while now, and all three of the Majestic's crew is eager to see what she will become. *Sandrylene?* she projects again.
"Ho! Clarinet!" Sandry's voice calls from above. She slides down a bit of the rigging and drops to the deck. "What troubles you, my sweet?" She smiles, wondering what is wrong. Usually, if Clarinet is in need of assistance, she goes to Tren. Sandry herself is of little help in the creativity department.
*I feel funny.*
"Funny? Sick-funny or strange-funny?" Concern creeps into Sandry's voice, despite her efforts to hide it. She smiles and bends down to look over the little wyrm. "You look normal to me," she states after her inspection.
*Strange then. I've never felt sick aboard the Majestic before, though there was that one time on Inla. I don't feel that way now. Now I feel as if I'm about to explode or something.* Clarinet cocks her head to the side, her features showing that she is quizzical.
"Explode? Mayhap you have too much energy there, young one." Sandry grins. "Would you care to come up to the crow's nest and talk about it with me?"
*Would I ever!* Clarinet's eyes shine with delight as her bondmate picks her up. She slithers around the neck of her human partner. She takes comfort in the delight of the heights as her companion scales the rigging.
When the pair arrive at the pinnacle of the ship's central mast, Clarinet sighs happily. She loves to feel the highest of winds lighting upon her face before moving onward. She remains tightly coiled about Sandry's neck, however. She has a terrible fear of falling and not knowing what to do as she does so.
"What manner of beast does trouble you, dearest?" Sandry finally inquires, searching for her spyglass. She locates it, stretches it, and watches the horizon. She is searching for the tell-tale cliffs of the Obsideon Sea.
*I'm just filled with a marvelous amount of excitement and energy today. I've never before felt it, and it isn't like normal energy at all. Indeed, it's more like anticipation, but that's not all I feel. I've also felt longing and desperation, things of which I've only heard, never before experianced myself.*
"Interesting, love. To what, pray tell, do you attribute this odd affliction of the spirit?"
*I know not, but Arae's words reverberate within me. She told me, as did many other scholars at the Library, that I was to transform into a shrape within the week. The week is almost up. Will we be docking soon?*
The latter part of Clarinet's question took Sandry so much by surprise that she almost dropped her telescope. "Why do you ask?"
*The catchment is low. I only noticed it now. Anyways, I fear I shan't ever become a shrape.*
"We'll dock as soon as we can. We can hold out for a few more days. As for not turning into a shrape, I highly doubt that possible. You will turn, though perhaps not so soon as you would like. Patience, love, is a virtue."
*If you say so, Sandrylene. Thank you for qualming my fears. I love you.* She gave an affectionate squeeze about her bondmate's neck before sighing and drifting off to a daydream.
Sandry stared off at the horizon. If she read the maps Arae gave her correctly, the Creature Refuge and the Library of Gettan were on the same land mass. She stared off for an hour before tiring of that and returning to the deck.
"Clarinet, you seem distracted," Tren states, finally rising from the hold where he had been performing a minor inventory. "We'll need to dock within the month. We have just enough food to get us to the Refuge, if your calculations are correct, Sandry."
Sandrylene merely smiles. She is listening more to the lull of the ocean than to anything else. The sky is a lovely blue today, the sun is shining brightly, and a light breeze wafts through the deck-level and a strong wind pushes the Majestic onward. She shrugs and begins to walk back towards Tren. Clarinet, who had been sunbathing, walks also to the Marian.
Suddenly, the ship lurches to the one side. The three lose their balances and slide to the port bow. *Are we under attack?* Clarinet asks, panic seeping through her voice.
Tren glances around, not at all afraid of falling into the water. "Nay," he states. "No ship in sight. Most probably merely a seaquake."
*Will we be alright?*
"Indeed, so long as the Majestic does not capsize." Already the ship is righted. "We should be wary, though. That may have been merely a precursor of a larger quake."
Clarinet nods and slithers over to Sandrylene. *I'm scared,* she admits.
"It's alright, love," Sandry whispers, taking Clarinet into her arms as she would a babe. "It will be alright."
Clarinet shivvers and sighs. She relaxes a bit, nods, and then leaps from her bondmate's arms to land with a bit of a skid upon the deck. *'Twill be right, right?*
As if in answer, a large wave crashes beside the boat, shoving them starboard. As the boat rocks, the three slide to the side again. Sandry and Tren are large enough so that they are stopped by the railing that lines the ship. Clarinet, however, is not so fortunate. She is still small enough to slip through the bars of the railing, and she does so.
*Sandrylene!* she calls, truly distraught as she plunges into the water.
The water is cold and reeks of saline and brine. Clarinet's eyes take a while to adjust to the salty water. In the mean time, her strange feeling returns. She feels her body enlarge greatly. She feels suddenly more in-tune with the sea, and she does not worry about drowning. She takes deep breath of water and rejoices in the fact that she now has gills of sort to convert water to oxygen.
She swerves her head around, suddenly her vision is crystal-clear in the salty depths of the sea. she sees she is nearly three or four times as long as she used to be. Her body is suddenly thicker as well. She blinks, pondering this, and suddenly remembers the Majestic, floating above her and being at the mercy of waves sent forth by shocks below the surface.
She dives for the bottom, the pressure bearing little resistance against her, and she sets about examining the ocean floor. There is a creature lodged between two rather large rocks. The creature itself is also quite big, and it struggles to free itself. It is scaley and an earthy orange with four limbs, each of them webbed. It possesses a beak and six pairs of beady eyes, the latter of which it uses to inspect Clarinet as she swims towards him.
*Hail and well met, creature. What manner of beast does hold you?* she inquires, noting that her voice is no longer shrill and childish, but rather deep and fluid, denoting a mystic quality to her.
The creature shreiks and the area shakes, causing a few waves above them to form. They look small from the bottom of the sea, but Clarinet knows better. It struggles to free itself, viciously shrieking and looking pathetically at Clarinet for help.
Clarinet sighs. *Calm yourself, creature. I mean you know harm.* She swims over to it, just out of reach of one of its great arms. *You seem to be stuck from the back. However did this happen? Were you caught here during a seaquake?* She swims about to the back of the creature, inspecting his dilemma.
The creature only shrieks in response, quieter this time, but loud enough to make some waves at the surface of the water, where surely Tren and Sandrylene are worrying about Clarinet's well-being.
Clarinet sighs and backs up. She needs to position herself well in order to work up enough force to push the creature free of its position. With a shrill cry, Clarinet shot herself forwards at the beast. She set her head so that she would not hurt herself and let velocity pound her into the creature's back. He jetted forwards, pulling free of the rocks that almost immediately began to crumble on top of Clarinet.
The shrape let out a quick "TREE!" that echoed off of many of the rocks nearby. She almost panicked, but held herself sure. She swam out of danger's path the way the beast had also exited. She nods to the creature who suddenly decides that she looks rather tasty, and hurries to breach the surface. The creatue can not make its way to the surface. It begins to feel asphixiated as soon as it rises half-way to the air and sunlight.
Clarinet chuckles and leaps from the water, making a large arial arc as so breaches into the sun. *Sandrylene! Tren!* she projects happily. *Look at me! I'm a shrape!*
"Turn around. Let's have a good look at you," Tren states. Clarinet is set in a serpentine posture on the deck of the Majestic. The sun shines off her newer set of scales. She blinks at the Marian who is currently the same height as she.
Clarinet obliges to the request and slithers in a langorious circle. She then lies flat on the deck, her body still set in the circle. *Well?* she projects, her eyes questioning for approval.
"I think you're wonderful no matter what, Clarinet," Sandrylene replies, smiling.
Clarinet's eyes fill with tears. *You don't like my form now?*
"No, that's not it at all. I think you're beautiful. I'm merely saying that I would have thought so no matter what you looked like."
*You're just saying that.* Clarinet looks away, no longer happy. She sighs, coils her muscles, and dives, over the railing and into the sea.
"Now look what you've done," Tren sighs, stripping off his shirt and shoes.
"What I've done? How have I done anything? I was merely being honest with her!" Sandrylene replies.
"No matter. I'll be back." Tren grins and brushes a hand through his blonde hair. He then perches himself upon the railing and dives in after Clarinet. He swims for a while before locating her snake-like body.
*Go away, Tren.* She doesn't even look at him when she says this. She had felt the awkward swimming of a surface dweller and knew that Sandry could not hold her breath long enough to come down after her.
"She didn't mean it. She loves you no matter what you look like on the outside. You're a wonderful creature, Clarinet, and more human than most. Please, go back to Sandrylene and the Majestic. I'll swim with you every now and again, I promise. We'll talk down here, just the two of us." Tren smiled, his words had been a bit bubbly and difficult to comprehend until he emptied his lungs of the air and began to fully use his gills.
Clarinet obviously sniffed. Was it possible to cry underwater? Evidently. *You're just saying that. I want to find someone who will love me upon seeing me, not because he or she is biased by my personality. Is that honestly so wrong?* She turned to face Tren, and she gave him the most pathetic look he had ever seen. *So I'm conceited in merely one area. Big deal. I don't want to be coddled. I merely wish to know how you two feel about my new form. 'Tis all.*
"We love it. We think you're beautiful."
*You'd think that if I were wrinkly and ugly.*
Tren nods, smiling.
*I'm being irrational, but I appreciate your flattery of my being.* She blinks and cheer returns to her eyes. *Thank you, Tren. You and Sandrylene are wonderful people, and I do things that shouldn't be done. I'm mean to you. I say awful things. I make you two worry. I-*
"You are forgiven a thousand times, and if ever you have wronged us truly, you were forgiven a million times before it happened."
*I love you both. Thank you.* She swims a loop about Tren and then shoots herself up to the surface. She feels Tren follow close behind.
"You're forgiven already!" Sandry laughs, trying to quiet Clarinet's admissions of guilt. "We love you no more and no less. It's okay, Clarinet!" She smiles, embraces the shrape, and sighs. She sets herself against the railing and stares out across the horizon. She takes out her telescope and watches the land mass in front of her for some time. Suddenly, she gasps.
*What is it!?* Clarinet inquires, alarmed. She nudges her way to Sandry's side. *What is it?* she asks again, calmer this time.
"It's the cliffs over the Obsidian Sea!" Sandry cries, delighted.
"But we're not to reach those for another month!" Tren objects.
"There's three definite ways we could have gotten here." She hands the spyglass to Tren and begins to count on her fingers. "One, we rift-slipped minorly. Two, the shockwaves of that creature sent us along faster than we could have known. Three, magic." She smiles and sighs.
"You honestly expect us to believe that mere magic and luck brought us here? More like a miscalculation you don't want to admit," Tren retorts.
*And that creature couldn't have sent us that far. It didn't take me long at all to catch up with the Majestic.*
"You two take all my fun!" Sandry objects, smiling. "Alright then, you win. We've rift-slipped. We've bypassed an entire month's worth of travel because we rift-slipped. Does that please you?"
"Yes, except for one thing," Tren began.
*How many times have we rift-slipped before now. It has all been open water, and we did not see a portal a first nor a second time. We could have passed through countless worlds without knowing it. Do you realize how dangerous that was!?* Clarinet reasons. *We could have been lost on an alien world with an atmosphere that is unbreathable to us. Or we could have been stuck somewhere full of giant frogs! Imagine the horror! Or we could have-*
"Clarinet, you read too much," Tren interjects, joking.
*Well, at the very least I could have missed my Shantel, and what sort of thing would that be? I'd rather be early, and I'm glad we are, despite the reasons.*
"True indeed," Sandry agrees. Tren merely nods his head. He feels that he has already dug a deep enough hole. No need to keep digging.
*Good sir Tren! What brings you here?* Richard projects joyously. He calls to them from the shore of the Obsidian Sea. The two humans have just completed dropping the anchor. Suddenly, from out of the water, Clarinet leaps in a glorious arc. Her streamlined body sprays flecks of water through the air. The setting sun glistens in them, throwing colors everywhere.
Richard gasps. He eases up, however, when Clarinet swims over to the shore and looks over him. He blinks down at her, not certain what to make of her coloration.
*You're not a Bishen,* Clarinet states, blinking a bit.
*And you're not a normal-hued Bishen. You have here a striking little lady, Sandrylene. Where are you hiding that third chap, Clar?* He blinks, looking around as if expecting him to pop up from nowhere.
*He's dead,* Clarinet replies smoothly. *He's my namesake. I'm Clarinet. It's a pleasure to meet you, kind sir.* Still, though, her expression remains nearly emotionless. If one would stare intently at her, however, he would notice the makings of a smile.
*Richard, dear lady. When I last saw you, you were but an egg!* He smiles and Clarinet blushes. Richard seems barely shaken up about Clar's death, as if he had expected it all along.
Tren and Sandrylene leave Clarinet and Richard to talk. The least they have in common is their colorations. Both are a light bluish color. The two humanoids set off through the portal and into Indyana's cabin.
"Another week?" Sandrylene reponds after being told the date of the Shantel.
Indyana nods. "You're welcome to remain here, however. It's really sad about what happened to Clar." She seems a bit more remorseful than Richard had.
"Indeed," Sandry replies, sobering up a bit from her adamant disbelief. "It's very kind of you to welcome us for so long, but we'd hate to put you out." She smiles meekly.
"Nonsense! If you stay here, you can meet the other Bishens from the Hunt. Besides, you wouldn't want to miss the Shantel because you had set sail again, would you?"
"I suppose not," Sandry responds, almost grinning.
Tren is half-listening as he reannalyzes the room. It's still a mess, not much about that has changed. However, it seems as if half the things had been put away where they belonged. Perhaps he is merely used to the mess on the Majestic. Probably not, though.
"If you'll excuse me," Indyana says after a few more moments of chit-chat. "It's time for my evening patrol."
"Of course," Sandry responds, allowing the woman to leave for the forest. After Indyana departs, Sandry sighs in admiration for her mettle. The pair return to the Majestic and stay there for the majority of the week, for Clarinet is quite shy of the land.
Background by Ender Design.
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