The Systems Challenge

Sonya didn't expect the first time shifting into a dragon to be pleasant. Shifting into any of her shapes for the first time never had been She endured it simply because she knew that afterwards, she'd be able to bypass whatever it was that made shifting so uncomfortable in the first place.

This time, at first it felt like she was getting bloated. Then she felt her center of gravity shift forward so she couldn't maintain her balance and feel on her hands and knees. Then even her arms and legs gave out, unable to hold that position as she felt her torso continue to grow. Then came a searing pain along her shoulder blades, like something was being carved into them. When that pain disappeared, she felt wings had grown on her back.

Next she felt her head elongating as horns grew out of her skull, leaving her with a massive headache, even as her neck grew longer. Then for a moment, the changes stopped. While she had thought in the past that it had been over, she knew that it was merely a temporary thing. Why it paused like that, Sonya had no clue. Just that it always paused at that moment before continuing up again after a minute or two.

When the changes started again, Sonya felt a scream lock in her throat as her back burned as spikes grew out along her spine, feeling like they were piercing through her skin as they did so. When she felt like she was at her limit in regards to pain, she felt her arms and legs finally start to change, in addition to her tail starting to grow. Which in turn added to the level of pain she was already enduring.

Sonya wasn't sure if she blacked out or if she had then become numb to the pain, or even all sensation of her body changing, but when she opened her eyes next, all the pain was gone. All sensations of how weak her arms and legs had been were gone. In its place, Sonya felt like she had more energy than she had in any of her other shapes, including her human shape.

Which, even though it was her original shape, she couldn't help but start to think of it as merely another shape. Sonya wasn't sure if that was merely a hazard of being able to shift shapes like she could now, or if it was a sign that she was losing at least part of her humanity.

As Sonya stood up, she looked around for a reflective surface so she could see what she looked like. Not so much from a vain perspective, but rather because she was curious as to what this shape really looked like. As it was one thing to 'see' the shape in her mind as she moved, and another thing to actually see what she looked like. Especially because of how she was uneasy as to what might be 'strange' about this shape.

When she didn't see anything that she could use as a mirror, she looked at the clothing she'd dropped on the ground. She figured she should at least put it in a pile under a tree, just in case there was any rain during the day before she was done.

As she reached for it, though, she stopped as her claw came into view. She was surprised to see that her scales were a soft pink with an iridescent gleam when struck by the sunlight. Her claws looked to be almost made out of a pink crystal, though she suspected they were harder than any simple crystal.

If that was the worst of the things about her new shape, then that would be something she could live with. I wasn't a real problem, especially since she doubted that anyone had gone to figure out what colors a dragon could be in the first place. If anything, she figured that she'd be able to ignore it, even though it really wasn't her favorite color.

Yet, she still wanted to see what she looked like, just to make sure that there wasn't anything else about her that would be part of the 'strange' aspect of this shape.

Sonya tested her wings by opening them up and flapping them. She felt like she was flexing her back muscles to move her wings, but somehow it also felt completely natural. Like she'd been doing this all her life.

However, she had barely started to get herself off of the ground before she felt a cramp in one of her wings and had to quickly set back down. When she was back on the ground, Sonya wondered if there was a way to stretch her wings in the future so that wouldn't happen again, or if there was maybe something keeping her from being able to abuse the ability of being able to fly like a dragon.

Still, she was pretty sure that she could still walk, so as began moving towards the location that she knew had some water that she could drink as well as look at her reflection in. Although, as she began to move, she had a feeling that 'walk' was probably a generous term as to how it felt. Her body was a lot more broad than it had been, and at times it felt more like she was 'waddling' rather than 'walking' towards the water.

As the sun shone through the trees, Sonya was pretty sure that it was going to be a beautiful day, even though the weather could still turn for the worse later on. She could hear birdsong around her, small animals roaming through the trees and underbrush, and there was even hunting birds flying through the air above her. In all, it would have been the kind of scenery she'd have expected for an advertisement to visit some place or to move to that area. Peaceful and quiet.

The only problem about it was that she couldn't enjoy it all day. If she did, she'd have wasted the entire day and she couldn't say if she had any days to waste. Not if she wanted to get strong enough to be able to be someone who could protect Heather. Although, she couldn't say if Heather felt the same about her.

With how long they'd been out of commission because of what happened to them with the goblins, Sonya was confident that there wasn't a way for her and Heather to win this competition, so she should try to prepare for when they'd remain in this world. Which meant she needed to be strong enough to be able to protect Heather from anything that could possibly threaten her.

When she finally reached the stream, Sonya looked at herself in the water and even moved so she could get a better angle as she twisted this way and that, including opening her wings to make sure that there wasn't anything other than her pink scales that would qualify as 'strange' to her.

Fortunately, she didn't see anything else, unless some of the horns on her head or spikes along her back would have fit that definition, but since she didn't know enough about dragons to say otherwise, she had to assume that it was only the color of her scales that would be out of the ordinary about her shape.

When Sonya returned that day, she entered the inn and for some reason when she saw Heather, she had an image flash through her mind of Heather freaking out when she saw Sonya shifting her shape. She couldn't remember if Heather had seen her shift shapes before or not, but the thought of Heather's reaction happening like that felt like a punch to her gut. She had to take a moment to even catch her breath feeling like she might fall down otherwise.

Out of everything that could happen, the one thing she couldn't allow was to lose Heather. If something happened to her, she wasn't sure what she'd do. If they somehow returned to their own worlds, that would be one thing, as she could at least hope that they were from the same world or that Heather would at least be able to be safe in her own world. Yet, if Heather turned away from her, regardless of the reason, Sonya wasn't sure if she'd have the will to continue on.

So, at that moment, she became determined to not let Heather see her shift to another shape. Not unless there was no other alternative. After all, even if Heather pushed her away because of that, Sonya would at least prefer Heather to be alive even then, than to keep Heather from pushing her away at the cost of Heather's life. That price would be unacceptable for her no matter what.

Days passed after that and Sonya quickly became able to fly for longer periods of time and was able to even find places to go monster hunting so distant from the village that she wouldn't have been able to have reached them if she couldn't have flown.

Although, raising her level still was rather a slow and laborious process, she couldn't say that it was a waste of time. Not only was she able to unlock new abilities in all of her shapes, most of which were rather useless except from her useful shapes, but she was able to unlock another useless shape of a housecat that had eyes that had a blue glow to them as well as some other skills that she wasn't entirely sure she understood.

Not that she sought help from her tutorial. She didn't plan on trusting that thing to help her try to figure out these abilities. One was that as she changed shapes, that she could alter various gender aspects of that shape, but it didn't really explain what benefit that might give her or any real purpose of it. The other was that she could combine shapes. Which she also didn't understand what benefit that might give her, nor did she really understand what purpose that might have.

Regardless of all that, she kept going until Heather gave birth to her baby. The child was clearly not human, but still adorable anyway. Heather looked torn as to what to do with the baby, since she hadn't given up returning to her own world, but she also didn't want to part with the child.

However, before Sonya could weigh in on the matter, Heather asked one of the other women who had been captured by the goblins to take care of the child. She suspected that Heather at least wanted to give her baby a chance to be happy if she wasn't able to return.

Or at least that's what Sonya had been able to understand from what Heather told her when they were seeking out where Jonas, Kim, Elin, and Elmo had gone. Even though they didn't have any idea of where to start looking for them.

Heather didn't complain about not being able to see Sonya shift into other shapes, but Sonya had a feeling Heather really wanted to . Yet, she couldn't let go of the fear about what would happen as a result of letting Heather witness that. She didn't want any of that to come true, so she always made sure to change her shape out of sight of others.

What finally helped them find those they were looking for was when the stellar bear woke up. While the announcer advised them to leave the bear alone, Heather was adamant that Kim at least would be wanting to defeat the bear. So, even though Sonya didn't share the same conviction, it was at least a lead for them to try.

Which turned out to be the direction they needed to go in order to meet up with the team that had saved them from the goblins.