Monsters

As we drove along the familiar road, I start to wonder: “What is waiting for me? What am I supposed to expect? Am I exited?”  My younger sister Amaya interrupts my thoughts. “You are over-thinking it again.” She states plainly, looking at me with a raised eyebrow and a mocking grin. She is the only person that can read me that well. She is my best friend apart from Holly, if it was not for the two of them, their support and love, I would not be able to become the next queen, or even be the person I am today. “Aahg, so what!” I said taking out my one earphone so that we could talk. I throw my head back against the headrest and squeeze me eyes shut. “Can you really blame me?” I asked her turning my head and looking at her. “No...I do not blame you, I could never, but you started frowning while thinking again. That normally means that you are starting to think the worst, or making up things that might never even happen, or am I wrong?” She says a-matter-of-factly.  “I just hate this, it sucks that you guys have to go back to the palace and I have to stay behind with Uncle Tamar. I mean I like him well enough, but I am going to miss you and Holly so much.” “Promise me that we will talk every day?!” I asked anxiously while grabbing her hand. She looked at me as if I just insulted her.  “How could you even ask me that?!  I don’t think either of us will survive this if we cannot talk...”  “That’s so good to hear. Thanks sis.” I smile at her while squeezing her hand.  “This is a little big,” I say more to me, while putting my earphone back in, and continued to stare out the window. The landscape flashes by steadily. Changing from inland forest to coast. With more shrubs than trees. I am going to miss the trees and the sunshine. Where I am going for the next year is a coastal town named Dolphin Island that has more mist and sand storms than anywhere else does. At least the weather is cool most year round. My name is Tatania Ayer and I am 17. My parents are moving me to the small town to start learning about my magic. This will start me on the long journey that will lead me to becoming the next queen of the magical kingdom called the kingdom of Arydia before my 30th birthday. The sooner the better right. Uncle Tamar is a family friend that also happens to be the best were-animal teacher in our kingdom. My father, Paul Ayer, is the pan-ware king and my mother, Anka Ayer, is a mermaid-fairy hybrid but also the queen. Since my fairy and mermaid side will only become active later, my ware-animal sides will become active around about my 18th birthday. Thus, I need to train and learn to control the animals inside me so that I can become a pan-ware successfully. What is a pan-were you might ask. A ware-animal that can shift into more than one were-animal form. There are six known animal forms. They are lions, leopards, tigers, wolfs, snakes and dragons. My father has mastered them all, and it is very likely that I too will be able to transform into all six. I am a little bit scared to be very honest. I do not really know what to make of the fact that I will be turning into large animals, but I will still be myself. Everyone keeps trying to convince me that it is not painful. That it will just feel like an out of body experience. There is a lot of pressure on me to become a pan-were successfully. Only royals can be pan-wares. There is not many of them. Non-royals will only ever have one animal form.  Now it is only my father and the possibility of me. Not even my sister will be able to become one. She is a nymph and adopted as well.  Another question you might have is why is my father not training me for this part? Well he has absolutely no patience when it comes to teaching any one anything. He is a tall, muscular man, with pale blue eyes and very red hair. His eyes have the ability to look right into you and find all your flaws. The best part is he will never use them against you. He also has the ability to win an argument even when he is wrong. He will never say sorry when he knows that he was wrong. That is one of his down sides. So, back to why he is not training me.  Well, he did try for one whole session. In this session, I was very lucky to have seen his ultimate hybrid form, where he has an attribute of all six animals and can use the dragon’s fire while not transforming into the animal completely. He calls it the ultimate semi state. It is very cool but very scary. Especially his eyes that stay pale blue but loose the whites as well as the pupils. Therefore, his whole eye becomes this beautiful pale blue. During this one rare training session, we both ended up yelling at each other. Because I might have gotten many things, form my mother like my eye colour, which, is also an indication of the colours my mermaid and fairy will be. From my father I defiantly got his temper, stubbornness and unique way of thinking that is maybe why we get along so well and not so well. As weird as that sounds. Every time I think of the day, I just have to laugh. It was about four weeks ago, I got ready for my normal combat training and after a session of maths and literature. When I got to the combat hall my normal combat instructor, Master Claudius, was nowhere in sight, but my father stood there looking at one painting of a sword. “Father, what are you doing here?” I asked plainly, very surprised that he was here. “I have come down today to start your ware-training.” He said turning to face me, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “But dad, uhm are you sure? Don’t you have royal duties to attend to with mother?” I tried to sound as sincere as possible. However, the truth was, I really did not want to have a session with him. “Are you trying to get rid of me?” He looked at me very sceptical.  “I would never!” I quickly recovered. “I just don’t want to interfere with your other duties.” “My other duties will just have to wait for now. Your ware-animals will start to rear their heads very soon. However, I think they have already. And we need to be ready otherwise you could hurt someone or even yourself.” He explained. “Let us get started, shall we?” I just nodded. “At least you are dressed comfortably.” He stated moving to the centre of the hall. “Sit” he commanded. I quickly ran towards where he told me to sit and sat down on the training mats. “I am sure you are familiar with meditation? Master Claudius has told me that he has sensed the animals when you meditate...”  He said looking me straight in the eyes.  “Have you noticed changes in yourself? Anything small could be a sign of what animal wants to come out first.” “Well I have been craving meat a lot. It has been so bad that I don’t even want anything else at this point.” I said trying to think if there are other things. “That is normal, but not at the level you are getting the cravings.” He says waiting for me to carry on. “I also have been sleeping less, like a lot less. I think I slept about two hours last night, and about three the night before. However, I do not feel tired at all. I could normally sleep for eight to nine, hours even longer.” I said. “That is normal for leopard, anything else?” he asked shortly “I have been getting a lot of chills, like its winter but I know it is nowhere near.” “That is normal for snake.”  “Is there more?” “Well I felt kind of weird last night, so I went for a walk, and yes I took a guard with, as we walked I really noticed the moon for the first time. I was so stunned that the guard nearly walked me over because I had stopped to stare without noticing.” I told him. “And my skin has been tingling a lot the last 3 weeks.” “This is not good. We don’t have a lot of time now.” He says to himself, not looking at me now. “It’s good I noticed that you were zoning out a lot. Well, enough of the symptoms. Let me explain. The symptoms you have mean that all six animals are trying to come out at once. That is good it means you have the potential to use all six as I do. In addition, if we do not control your changes then animals might come out in the wrong order for you to become a pan-ware. The order is: Snake Wolf Leopard Lion Tiger Dragon “If you do not start at the weakest then you might not get access to all of them. For example, if the lion came out first you would lose the snake, wolf and leopard. Are you with me?” “I am, but how do we choose which comes out first?” I asked. “Well, I like that you do think ahead. You will meditate while I expose you to my snake’s presence. Your snake will then try to communicate with mine, when it does you focus on it.” He explains. “Okay, that sounds simple enough. When do we start with this?” I asked. “You are so funny my daughter.” He looks at me while smiling. “Well I am your Daughter.” I said, sending him dagger eyes for mocking me. “We start now.” He said seriously “Start meditating.” I started, as I normally would, clear mind, ignore sounds, hone in on my breathing and heartbeat. After about five minutes, my father placed his hand on my knee and he whispered, “I will give you two minutes to recover from the interruption and then I will try contacting you snake. Just nod if you understand.” He removed his hand I nodded once All of a sudden I was very cold and it felt like something was pushing up against my skin, I realised it was my father’s snake presence. I opened myself to it and that was when it went wrong, he was pushing a little too hard and when I opened, I started absorbing the essence of his snake. That means I was going to drain his magic and he could lose the ability to turn into his beautiful yellow snake form. When he realised this, he shut me out, and starting to yell at me. “How could you attack your father like that? This is not how you are supposed to do it! I am done with this!” As I looked up his appearance had changed. Out of anger and as a defensive mechanism he had turned into parts of his animals. His eyes had no white parts and no pupils. Snake scales covered his arms. He had wolf ears on top of his head but they had tiger strips on them. He had his glorious lion mane the same colour as his very red hair. He had a leopard tail. I noticed he had different teeth. Smoke was coming out of the corners of his mouth. I stared at him in amazement and fear. “Bu... but father this is the first time I have done anything like this! How am I supposed to just do it right the first time!” I yelled back “We are done. You are going to Uncle Tamar.” He said and walked out of the hall. There was no time or place to argue. The king had spoken. I fell down on the mat and cried until Amaya found me and took me back to the palace. She had cancelled my next lessons and drawn me a bath in the huge bath in the bathroom between our joint rooms. She filled it with bubble bath and my favourite scented oils. Then she just sat with me, using a sponge to drip water down my back. While I sat in the warm water, my knees up against my chest. I just cried for about two hours or so. After the bath water was cold, I got out and dressed for bed. It was the first night in a long time. Amaya slept over with me in my bed. It was also the first night that I slept seven hours again. Amaya pulled me out of my thoughts, squeezing my hand that she has been holding this whole time. I pull my earphones out. “We are driving up to the town now. I thought you might want to see it all again.” She smiled at me. There is something in her navy blue eyes for a moment. Just as fast as it came, it was gone. I could have sworn it was sadness. “Thanks” I say moving to put my phone and earphones away. I look out of the window again just to find that there is just mist everywhere. You cannot even see the buildings that are just beside the road. “The whole town is covered in mist. How am I supposed to see the ocean? Or for that matter the houses or anything!” I joke with Amaya. We have been here before to visit with Uncle Tamar. Every time we were here, the sun never shone. This is supposed to be a beach town. Yhah right. Could have fooled me. “You know what I meant.” She said sticking out her tongue at me. “The house is on the other side of the town. Do you girls want to get a coffee or something to eat before we go to Uncle Tamar’s?” my mother asks while leaning over so she can see into the backseat. For the first time I notice my mother is looking a little tired. Never in my life has my mother been the kind of person to try to delay things. I get the feeling that she was trying to delay my drop off as far as possible. “Yes please. That would be so nice mom.” I smile at her “The king has been out voted!” She formally declares. “Take the royal highnesses to the nearest food place!” she mocks my father while Amaya and I are canning ourselves in the backseat. My father grunts, rolls his eyes, but turns into the nearest restaurant. We all ate steak. Mine was cooked the most rare. Nobody dared asked any questions. After we were done at the restaurant, we drove straight to Uncle Tamar. My father claimed that he would be waiting for us to arrive any moment now. His house is a big four-bedroom thee story house with a very big yard. Behind the house is the second biggest training hall in the whole kingdom. The one at the palace, being the biggest. It is only Uncle Tamar and his son, Amir that lives here. His wife died giving birth to Amir. There is one thing that I might admit to. Amir is very handsome. He is almost as tall as his father is. He has his father dark brown hair but very light grey eyes that just wants to swallow you. I wonder what has changed since the last time we were here. Would he even be around so we can catch up a little? On the other hand, will he just be here one day and gone the next? I wonder what he is like now. We have not seen each other in about three or four years. It has been so long I cannot even remember.  For as long as I can remember I have been writing things down. no one reads them but me until I met one special person. she showed me its okey to be youself. She helped with cover ideas and with the story itself. She is one of the few people that think I'm good. Thank you for being you Chane. and thank you all for reading. Please comment and tell me what you think. Princess kisses.  BB