Palms hammered on drums, producing a rhythm akin to the beating of a heart.

Du-Dum. Du-Dum. Du-Dum.

Kai stood naked to the teeth in the middle of the gathering; only a badly crafted lumbar short was wrapped around his hips.

Surrounded by most of the village residents, he stood nervous in light of the dim fires they produced to hush away the darkness.

His pale skin shone for the last time in their flickering glow, giving him the appearance of an animated marble statue.

Behind him stood his sister Lira and Groll, who was like an uncle to him. They would serve as crooks during the ritual.

The latter of the two just appeared a few minutes before the ritual was scheduled to start, apparently having returned from his mission early.

Kai was glad about it. There were no people he would rather have by his side, besides his mother, but with her disease, that was out of the question.

A sharp stitch of worry raced through him as he thought about her, but he shoved the throught aside.

Lira nudged her brother with her shoulder. "Relax, Kai. You shaking like leaves."

But her brother was too occupied with overthinking every single detail that might go wrong to even notice her words.

As preparations for the ritual were finished up, the crowd in front of the three broke open, and the tribes shaman emerged from it.

She was a scrawny woman who had lived through many years of struggle and hardship. Her skin was as pale as Kais but folded in laughter lines and wrinkles.

The whole clan loved this old woman. For the most, her face had been the first they saw upon entering this strange world.

As she limped towards Kai, she leaned on a wooden stick that towered two heads above her.

Dozens of different beasts were engraved on the upper end of it, while the lower made a distinct thud every time it hit the ground.

Behind the old woman walked a little girl, carrying a long knife in her two hands.

Her face showed determination, like she was the most important person to exist, and passing trinkets to the shaman was the most important task there was.

Some of the crowed giggled upon her cute display, her mother and father hugging each other as they proudly watched her perform her duty.

Following after the girl was Aurora, who had decorated herself with all kinds of trinkets and chains of yellow grass.

She wore a reddish-brown gown that ended right above her ankles.

She might be the only Shapeless with a Heart that also wore shoes every day, the wooden pair she had placed over her feet today giving a soft tud that with every step.

With no part to play in the beginning of the ritual, she just stood at the edge of the clearing amid the crowd of people, crossing her arms under her chest.

Now that all actors had entered the stage, the crowd behind them fused again, people joining each other by their hands, rocking slightly on their heels.

The old shaman looked up at the boy in front of her. "Are you ready, child?" She spoke with a voice that could as well be ancient.

It was sharp like the scrape of ancient iron, yet it carried the unyielding strength of tempered steel.

Kai nodded. "Yes, aunt Iglasia."

The thing lips of the woman curved upwards in pride of the young man in front of her.

"Then let us not waste more of our precious time."

With a strong thrust, she stuck her staff into the ground and rubbed the palms of her hand against each other before spreading her arms wide.

She threw her head back, beginning a low and throaty hum that quickly spread over the crowd around them.

Adding to the mix of voices, a few women around them began to sing meaningless words with their high pitched voices, adding to the drumming and humming, making it into music.

It was like adding spices to a bowl of boiled water and vegetables, thus transforming it into soup.

Kai felt his mind slowly hollowing out as the lullably began to take its affect.

A urge inside him arose to join the others, to share their song and become one with the choir, but he suppressed it.

His role wasn't to sing but to listen and endure.

The shaman closed her mouth and turned to the little child; the music continued without.

Full of pride, the girl kneeled and presented the knife over her head. As the shaman took it, the girl produced a vial from her tunic and began fiddling with the clasp.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The shaman turned to face Kai.

With slow and deliberate strokes, she guided the huge knife, which was made of the tusk of a stonetiger, through the air like she was trying to cut it.

It almost looked like she was dancing.

Kai arched his back, pushing out his chest. The song around him changed, and it got harder to pay attention to what Iglasia was doing.

The shaman altered her dance and focused it to brush the knife over the boy's body.

Form his left shoulder over his right chest to his right hip, back up to his right shoulder, and finally coming to a halt over his left boob.

Lira and Groll grabbed Kai at his shoulders, their hands resting on his back.

The humming song reached its zenit as the knife slowly entered Kais skin.

A pain shot through him, but the music in his ears and the hands of his family over his back conforted him and took the edge away.

This was nothing compared with the pain he had endured when Moran brought that iron onto his shoulder.

Or when he had learned of his father's death.

With quick strokes, the knife cut through skin, flesh, and even bone, carving a path towards Kais heart.

As she had reached deep enough, the shaman shoved the boy's lungs to the side with practiced ease to reveal the pulsating knot of fleshy vines in his centre.

A few precise strokes freed the mass of mucles from the rest of his body.

In an instant, Kai slumbed and would have fallen over if it weren't for the calm hands that held him steady.

Groll and Lira whispered reassuring words into his ear, but he couldn't hear them anymore. The whole scene was terrifying.

Never had he lost control off his body so completely. His brain produced liquid fear but, without the pulsing mass, had no way of spreading it.

Quickly, the shaman pulled the knot out of the boy's chest, and with a few twists and turns, it was undone.

She turned towards the girl and traded the knife for the lump of flesh the girl had produced from the vial and was now presenting to her.

It was a piece of the beast Kai had slain, carved and cut to fulfill its new purpose.

She shoved the fleshy vines she had unralved the knot into throught carved holes, and they melted together into one organ.

After she was finished, she pressed the construct back into the boys chest.

With her part done, the shaman took her staff from the ground, and together with the girl, they took a few steps back to join the quickly fading song.

Aurora shoved herself into the space the old woman had just left and laid her hands on Kais chest.

Warm blood ran between her fingers as she assumed her Halfshape.

Two antlers grew out of her blonde hair, and fur began to spread over her arms and legs.

She gave the silent command and the fleshy vines joined ends with the ones rising from the heart.

Quickly, bones, flesh, and skin assumed their former positions, and the wound was gone.

The boy wheezed and drew a ragged breathe as the cloud of death left his eyes and his new heart spread live throught him with every beat.

Du-Dum. Du-Dum. Du-Dum.

The sound hammered in his ears, shot through his brain, and reverberated through his entire beeing.

Lira and Groll let go of him and all three of them stepped back and joined the song, while Kais body began to change.

His pale skin toned darker like his mother, and he grew a couple inches with his shoulders broadening themselves.

Du-Dum. Du-Dum. Du-Dum.

Fur grew over his bald patch until he couldn't be called bald no longer. It was pitch black and oily, resembling the liquit the creature had sweated.

The white of his eyes turned a weak yellow and his pupils became almost white.

Du-Dum. Du-Dum. Du-Dum.

As his transformation finished, so did the song, but unwilling to give silence an opportunity to set in, the crowd erupted into cheers and clapping.

Kai turned around to see Lira and Groll smiling at him. He was now nearly as tall as the latter. The man spread his arms and motioned to wrap them around the former boy,

but Lira shoved him aside, smothering her brother in a hug.

"Congrats," she shouted in his ear. "I always knew you could do it."

"Ow," Kai commented, jerking his ear away from her. "Don't shout right into my ear."

Lira giggled. "Sorry." She looked at him, and something inside her itched. It was strange seeing Kai like he was now.

Only a few minutes earlier he was her little brother, the same she had known all her life, but now he only resembled him faintly anymore.

She would have to get used to it.

A great sadness threatened to wash over her, but before it could, Grolls massive arms wrapped around both of them, lifting them off the ground.

"Ma boy is now a man," he sobbed into their ear.

"Owh!" Protested both of them at once, as their ears were ringing and their bones were creaking.

"Don't kill them, honey," said Zaspa with a giggle as she emerged from the crowd. She was Grolls wife and always wore her Heartshape parcially.

She reached almost to her husband's shoulders, her bluish-white mane falling in waves down her back.

Both her arms and legs were littered with scales that shared the color of her hair, the latter of which ended in sharp talons that dug mercilessly into the ground with every step.

Groll let them go and wrapped one of the trunks he called arms around her shoulder, tears rolling down his black cheeks.

"Can you believe that, princess? Those two little children are now both warriors."

Zaspa rolled her eyes upon her husband's antics but rested her head against his shoulders.

"I'm not a princess, and they are not children any more."

She replied, but she understood what he meant. It was always hard seeing children grow up.

Witnessing them turn from something you could protect into something you can't any longer.

Groll's arm slung around her, and he nudged her head to look up at him.

"You'll always be my princess," he said, with that caring voice she loved so much.

"Charmer," she said, leaned up and kissed him.

On the other side of the clearing Kai and his sister drew wheezing breaths, their lungs slowly recovering from the hug.

Lira gave the now broarder back of her brother a hearty slap. "So, what now? Try yourself at talking to Nyxy."

Before his transformation, Kai would protest against the amount of force his sister liked to put into her slaps, but now he barely felt it.

Her words, however, still had the same effect as ever. His orange cheeks turned red, and Lira was sure it wasn't part of any heartshape.

His head shot around. "Lira!" he said with a reproachful tone, as if there was anyone in the village who didn't know her brother had a crush on the girl.

Well, the whole village besides her.

Not wanting to emberass him on his big night, she broke out into a hearty laugh and gave him another, slightly harder slap.

She would miss feeling him wince under her hand, but that was something she gladly took in exchange for having her brother back.

"Come on," She said. "Mom isn't here, so let's get you something to drink."

Kai gave her a broad smile and wrapped his arm around her back to pull her into another hug.

The two laughed and drank as the night contiued.