I was at the vilge border. The world was of pead silence beyond the unordered yet melodious orchestra of the wild. In front of me stood a massive, hollowed-out yet living tree.

  It was bathed by the shy moonlight of Ursoc's Might, putting into evidehe two totems guarding its entrawo bear sculptures covered in runes and fl vegetation. And they were more than decorative; they exuded a rexing presence.

  Passing by them, I parted the vines and saw three shamans within. Two were sleeping, and my teacher sat in the middle, all on furs and magically fresh grass. His eyes slowly opened, and a smile spread across his muzzle.

  "The spirits are lively tonight… A most fortius time." He said, tapping his paw before him for me to sit up at my usual spot, "Are you prepared to walk awake in the Land of Dreams tonight, young Ohto?"

  "I'm ready, teacher," I said, taking a seat as I pced myself fortably. The entire pce was designed for fort, making it ughably easy for me to drift into slumber. The ritual from st year only helped with that.

  "The's go." He said, smiling as he csped his paws together loudly. At that, I breathed out, closed my eyes, a myself fall into the Emerald Dream with familiar ease.

  My mana shifted inside, as did my enviro, and in five short minutes, I passed from the world of the waking to the one of the dreaming. A process that only became faster over time.

  When I reopened my eyes, I saw a colorful clearing, one only spoken of in fairy tales. A garden of wildflowers of all shapes and flowers shifted in a soft breeze. Fairy dragons, bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and many other flying critters animated the pe of flesh and bohers of translut energy.

  On the bigger side, a group of deer drank from the crystal clear ponds where lotus bloomed, dragonflies buzzed, and frogs croaked. Wisps of light, some mere mana, and some spirits floated in the air, lighting the dark pce with the biolumi flora below the vibrant green s of the surrounding a forest.

  This was the Emerald Dream, a pce I was more than aced to. And what an exceptional pce it was both aesthetically and from a more empirical point of view.

  There were many hypotheses on this realm from my past life knowledge, such as its artificial nature and that it might be a fragment of the supposed Realm of Life shaped by the Titans or Keepers. I even had an idea of its tie to my rebirth in some forms. But at best, it was baseless jecture. The same possibility was for the Shadownds, but that ile of paradoxes better left aside.

  Putting this aside, it agical wonder and mysteries in its om idealization of primordial wilderness.

  An idealization indeed, it ce of harmony and peace where predation and herbivory in all its forms, from primary er to sedary aiary, from what I saw, were absent as it was a realm of Life where Death seemed ent, unlike Azeroth even if it served as a sort of pseudo afterlife for the wilds, furbolgs ted.

  It was an amusing tradi si was supposed to be primordial nature. Not that it took away anything from its beauty and importance.

  "What are you thinking, little one?" A femihereal voice cooed from behind my ears, fiddling with them with peared to be dainty fingers instead of cws. I stopped moving, my pupils tracted, and my fur stood on ends.

  Instincts and ingrairaining took over, and my current spiritual body acted faster than my mind. My translut paw with open cws stopped an instant away from digging through the unprotected soft belly of a chimeric creature, drawing droplets of blood from the two or three timeters of skin I perforated.

  A pale purplish and greenish skin that beloo a female, essentially a bare upper body simir to a night elf, but instead of two legs, was ected from the pelvis to a doe's body where the neck would be.

  A dryad. Ohat was standing on roots to reach my height.

  I retracted my cws aed the daughter of arius harshly, "Don't ever do that again. I nearly eviscerated you and won't hold baext time."

  I didn't offer an apology. I was not sorry. Though I was more embarrassed and angry that I didn't feel the dryad before she did THAT to my ears, and it pissed me off. Only family members and mates could do so. She nearly made me have a heart attack. This realm was so filled with life that I couldn't distinguish which was which without focus. It was overwhelming in every way.

  Still, I was going to heal the puncture wounds; however, the older furbolg stopped me.

  "Ah… There is no need, young Otho. I have warned Shael'dryn of your training... other sides. Any injury she may have sustained from her unwitty prank would have been her own doing. If worse were to happen, you would be here." My teacher said coolly, walking from where he had appeared, his figure like me, vaguely translut, uhe dryad as she was here physically.

  "Mm-mm!" The now named dryad Shael'dryn nodded excitedly, refog oh a childish grin showing pearly white teeth, "Elder Shaman Oakpaw's words are truth, and so I propose a truy show of mistrust."

  "Er… Okay, then… Shael'dryn? Don't do that again, and we're good." I answered with uainty at her sheer gleeful attitude. She only nodded further, bobbing up and down like an over-excited cub.

  It was why I wasn't going to press down too much beyond that I doubted she would uand. It was a waste of breath. I could feel it. Ursol gives me the patiehat I don't snap her denty neck like a twig.

  "Ow… Aren't you just the most adorable not-so-not-so-little thing ience? All cuddly, moody, wild, and fluffy murder ball of cws and fangs!" She tinued, growing roots to climb up and catch my ears again, ign what I had just said. This time, I saw it but didn't dodge.

  Instead, I willed these same roots to ensnare her front hooves, making her violently eat the grass at my feet with a high-pitched squeal, smming her fa a root.

  But to my displeasure, she was unfazed. She brought her torso up, spat the dirt, and snapped her broken o pce, and of all things, she fug giggled. After that, almost a minute passed, and we wrestled for trol of the roots.

  To my frustration, she ultimately won by diverting my focus by using other roots to tickle my ears again. Then, she took advantage of my pse in attention and freed herself, jumping away elegantly on her hooves with an amused glint in her eyes.

  'Calm down... she is one of those...' I mentally said to myself, cooling my desire for violence, verbal or physical. It would only do the opposite. And I was fident it would py to her amusement. I hope every dryad wasn't like her, though.

  She ignored my expression as she excimed joyfully, giggling, "Marvelous! I had difficulty believing it, but it was true then! You're a very iing little-not-so-little-one! Your future is bright, very bright indeed."

  Then her focus went to my teacher as if I did, aourned serious, "I see now how he is ready. If only others were here to withis… As, they must fight this icky sticky thing, bah."

  The Nightmare...? Hm, probably.

  "Indeed, but it's not a matter for tonight." Oakpaw sighed, "I call for your assista's uo partake alone in this ritual. He is skillful, as you have seen for his age, but he remains a cub, and if he loses himself, I fear I won't be able t him back. Unlikely as it may be, I don't want to let ce py a role in his fate."

  While what rophesied an unpleasant possibility of going feral, it firmed that tonight was different from any other visit to the Emerald Dream. Well, it wasn't just sightseeing and exploration we did; it was an excellent pce to train and study, and I loved every sed of it, but that wasn't the subject here.

  "Are you talking about shapeshifting? Is it the time? Truly? You think I'm ready, teacher?" I asked more excitedly than I would've liked to let on, but I could do little about it. I had been waiting for this day for a long time.

  Around seven years of waiting, to be precise, si was when I began to go there with my teacher actively and not randomly in a nightmare–most of the time–before snapping awake, thereby fetting half of it.

  "Yes, little-not-so-little-one, but there is no reason to be hasty. I have been informed of your pn. I want to hear from you. Why flying?" The dryad asked.

  "When furbolgs envision taking the shifting in the skin of other creatures of the wild, it's usually a bear, ane breed of nd-dwelling creature, or a nature spirit. Your choice is unique, but it seems hardly a y to you. Remarkable." She added good-heartedly, genuinely wanting to know.

  I obliged; it wasn't a discussion I hadn't had before with Oakpaw for long days, though it was more about ving him to let me try than anything else. Or more to go along as he knew I would have gohout his accord if he refused without a ving argument.

  The other shamans weren't particurly fans of my idea either, and some vehemently disapproved of it, no matter how logical my points were. Same for a portion of the aors. But they allowed it, not that they could forbid me; it wasn't a dictatorship, they weren't angry either. It wasn't quite as dramatic as it sounded.

  They wanted a bear first purely for theological reasons, and I know I asked if there was rationality in their views, but there wasn't. And the form by itself for furbolgs wasn't all that useful. We were bears from the get-go with simir senses. It was true shifting would mean a high ce of a bigger, stronger body, but that was for a regur furbolg, not an in-training-growing ursa totemibsp;

  It also meant no thumbs and less agility and range of motion in malus. The inability to use most of the magic that came with it was also a sizeable problem, even if it was universal to shapeshifting and something temporary if work ut into it. It was to re-trained oo use mana in a new form.

  It was likely why my teacher was the only oo e and he dryad help. That only a portion of our shamans were skilled enough in shapeshifting to help was only the final nail in the coffin. It wasn't even like I wasn't pnning on learning to turn into a bear ter on. They wait a bit.

  "Huh, for the freedom of movement, it's also the logical choice sidering my training as an ursa totemic. Taking a ndform as of current me as little to no be; I will o learn to fight with it, grasp potentially tradictory instincts, and more. But while a flying form suffers from the same shortings and more, it gives new possibilities the former 't. And being in the sky is something I always dreamed of!" I reverted to ag more my age at the end, but I was just too damed. Also, it gave me a dimension of freedom.

  "Oh! If that isn't a studiously charged respoh fht and uanding, you are a smart little one, aren't you? Ihe power to traverse the sky uhered by the shackles of the earth, free to go where you wish, and explore the great outdoors must be incredible!" She sang, going for an, which I dodged to her immense sadness, and she pooted, but crocodile tears won't get her anywhere with me.

  Not after the shit she pulled at first.

  "Let's proceed." My teacher voiced sternly yet with clear amusement at the se, and that's what we did. Our walk was short, shorter than I was used to. Shael'dryn was uide, and she bent the Emerald Dream in strange ways, accelerating our speed by using hidden portals and passageways.

  It was incredible but also frustrating. I couldn't pinpoint what Shael'dryn was doing to any signifit degree. I khere was a method, a system she was trolling, but how to deted use it was a different story.

  However, it all vanished when I faced our destination, an immense mountain breaking through the clouds. We were at its base, and I could see an ever more massive tree growing atop. Its roots reach us and spread through the nearby forest and mountains. However, it was dead, its bark an ashen grey and all its branches devoid of leaves, yet nature resent in all its form.

  From the roots, trunk, and every branch, the flora took over, l over the aree, using its carcass as it was due—a pce to grow and spread, bringing a mosaic of colors and shape.

  tless creatures were flying around or perched on it, from birds, and pnt flying squirrels to wind serpents and even protons; some were biological, but most were spiritual.

  "The Mother Tree…" I said in awe, mouth hanging open, and eyes widened as if trying to imprint the image forever in my memories and my ears twitg at the winds whispering with an a presence, Aviana by all ats. Or what little of her remained–I wasn't sure–but the foe was evident. It was an invitation.

  "Indeed… G'Hanir and Aviana, hic was their fate." Shael'dryhed out with mencholy and grief, tears rolling down her cheeks, a shog difference from what I became used to.

  "Hmmm, I sense a breeze. Our wele is ernal. Go young Ohto, and prove yourself worthy." Oakpaw said, taking a seat on the grass and closing his eyes.

  I nodded, merely taking oep, and the foy person increased tenfold, rippling my mana as a call for attention only increased this as an array of flying creatures big and small came a or simply observed from their perch—chirps, caws, hoots, buzzes, clicks, and more eg from them.

  They studied me, and I did the same. They knew what I wanted, and each of those spirits could impart their very existeo me, giving their essen their bodies and instincts. Yet it wasn't as simple as that; uanding and patibility were the most important.

  Or having a willing Wild Gods on hand, but that wasn't an option here, aside from Aviana making the curre possible, if I uand right. She was Mistress of Birds and virtually everything that flew beside dragons.

  Anyway, I was cutthroat on these matters. My choices were based on that, not beauty, irength, or capabilities; those were sedary.

  This philosophy, in theory, should grant me more trol over my form, lettialk, partially shift, and freely use magic with my form far more easily than usual. It was a big if, but there were examples of druids so in tuh their wild shape they were effectively the same and capable of doing what I said.

  It wasn't necessary to bet on patibility to achieve this, but I didn't have turies in advao do the orthodox ways. Though taking that route also had a higher risk of losing sight of who I was, it was worth taking.

  As such, I was unsurprised when, in short order, the 'arthropods' of all kinds fluttered away in swarms. The was 'birds' who did the same after it was the 'reptiles,' and various chimeric hybrids quickly followed them. It left me with 'mammals,' or this world's equivalent.

  Cssification of life was strange here; the teiques of Earth were essentially unusable, but there still was a notion of who was closer to who, and it was in that order the creatures left, the farthest to closest to me, and so what I sought.

  From here, the more meticulous phase began. And it was only between different species of bats, nothing out of my expectation. There wasn't an infinite variety of animals capable of self-powered flight, simir ts, biological and spiritual.

  Then, it came down to me as an individual.

  'Found it…' I thought, a grin on my muzzle as I focused o. It was her the rgest nor the prettiest, fastest, or most magical if it was on the higher end for the size, but I k was. The right o was hard to describe, like taste, it just was.

  As if sensing my i, all others but my target flew bato the trees, leaving me aloh a massive winged predator nding before me, cwed wing fingers digging deep in the soil. Its pointed ears twitched as it cocked its head, a maw of longs protruding fang half-open and predatory eyes on me.

  Its body puffed up, a mane of fur doing the same like an umbrel while its wings propped up, and a low rumbling rattle of hiss echoed from its throat.

  I only responded in kind, matg its energy. I didn't know what its species was, and I cared little for that at this instant as I stood my ground. I bared my teeth, huffed loudly, snapped my teeth loudly as my fur bristled, and I ged my posture with my arms spread and paws ready to strike as I cwed at the ground, never breaking eye tact.

  Yet it wasn't going to e down to a fight. It wasn't the point of this face-off. It was to judge, observe, test, know, and uand. Or that's how I hoped to see it: you don't anthropomorphize things randomly, even here, and grasping what a creature was a was the point right now.

  After an uermined amount of time, the bat was seemingly satisfied. It stood on its hind legs, its massive wings opened wide, and it screeched to the sky before exploding into a stream of green mote that smmed into my chest.

  Faster than I could process, I felt a shift, mental and physical, and my spiritual body ged. The transition was smooth and natural, arms and fihinning and elongation, spine ging shape, muzzle shortening, and es growing as the remaining of my everything took on another form.

  Head turned, ears spun to sound.

  Heartbeats.

  Eyes nded on sources. Unmoving. Fear, yet not. fusing. Preys. Regardless.

  Food. Owo bodies. Straher old. No matter. Food.

  Me. Hungry. Me. Eat. Rip and tear flesh.

  Jaws clicked, and I she air. I froze.

  All thoughts went away for a long sed.

  Memories came bao food. They weren't food. They weren't prey.

  I recoiled, hissing out, saliva that had been p out of my fanged maw thrown around as I shook my head. The dark primal fog of predatory violend huhat had settled without my notice dissipated, yet the vestiges of it forever anchored to the core of my being. There was so much, and it felt stra n. It felt correct, but this wasn't like when I was reborn. I was still a furbolg.

  'I want to test flying! But first…' I thought excitedly

  'L-' I tried to talk, and it came out as a tiny squeak that turned a few pitches higher as I fell forward, trying to stand up with a morphology not designed for bipedal motion.

  Then a feminine chuckle exploded, far louder than they should have the right to be. My wings were used as makeshift hands flying to my rger yet still bear-like ears to muffle cacophony in vain. It wasn't painful, just a lot.

  As, I fot I wasn't humanoid again and fell snoot first in the flowers, causing the loud o go on and on with what felt like the ey of the forest ten kilometers around. But I wasn't overwhelmed per se and gred at the dryad, my eyesight not worse by any degree but not particurly aer either.

  "Oh, silly you! You came back to us seds before you ate us. I'm proud of you. The old bear is, too! But it seems there is some work to do. Step by step, it is!" Shael'dry out with a grin.

  Right, there was that… Shapeshifting mixed the best traits, so I got my eyes from my furbolg self and the ear from the bat, even if the shape was more from the former if my sense of touch wasn't too skewered. My fur was of the same charcoal bck, too.

  How it worked, I didn't know; shapeshifting was impossibly plex, yet I just did it. Somehow… It was like moving a limb, the thousands of incredibly plex biological processes happening for that, but instead of that, it was magid astronomically above in scale ah.

  And I wao uand it all.

  "Daydreaming in the Dream? htdreaming in this case? Hihihi! But quite the bold choice to turn into a bloodwing bat." Her girlish voiapped me back to the present, with my gre gainieention at her, but it all disappeared when the Elder Shaman spoke.

  "You did well, young Ohto." My teacher excimed i my form, making me puff up in pride as he approached me, making it apparent I was signifitly smaller than the inal, disappointing but logical with my age. Even with the Totemic Ritual two years ago, it will ge with time. I just have to grow more.

  I chirped happily at the praise; they were rare ing from him.

  The_Bip_Boop2003

  Thanks, EmilBigErk, Mike Stewart, Dyn Mayfield, BzeSavage, What Ewer, Jeff Fischer, Hope Bain, Vex, Jackietron201, Crach Grey, Michael Carter, Ben Lockwood, Kunta, Nezih Süzer, Devon Emmons, Furry Bear, sadomazox, Jarvis Schellinger, jacob griffin, Mitch, Velzon, Cameron Youngman, TheFuzzySamurai, Grey Heart, Marc Smith, James Wood, Proxy, shadowSeth, Talberts, Scott, Gal Anonim, PIEGURU8, Thomas Hendrix, léroy jenkins, Tobias, Jose Matos, K, Alex pritchard, Falk Hüser, SirSp, Sam Mbya, Alexander Amann, Name, Man Robertson, Aaron Taylor, Mika Willems, phil, Brian Beard, JchuckS, Wold Layman, Gee Dean, Nateica Burlock, Wildvoid, andre, Eioe, Scarletmenace, Pilot Pirx, er Ja, Carlos head, Thomas Dey, Asura, Gronnr, Lucas Gossett, ton Jenkins, Desote, Tristan Nadeau, Mest450, Ang, Sabypyz, charlie wagner, Hedgeboar, JJ JJ, Linus Bengtssone, Mason for the support it's greatly appreciated.

  [colpse]