I was pulled away from watching everyone by Torill's insistent tugging on my arm. "Come on, it's almost afternoon already. How big of a bag do I need? Also, what exactly are you going to be doing?"

"Well… I'll show you." I impulsively shifted to my squirrel form while we walked. I chittered out a laugh as I grabbed hold of her hand with my little paw to keep from falling. I scrambled onto her hand, careful not to pierce her skin with my wickedly sharp claws. My personalized squirrel form would probably not add the harmless concept if I channeled a core without directing it.

She took my sudden shift in stride, and lifted me up to get a better look at me. "Aww, that's adorable, but I don't think you got the form quite right there. I'm not sure squirrels are supposed to have horns, or be white with black stripes."

"It happens when I shift fast, I don't mind so much. I kind of like having part of who I am show through."

She scratched my back with her slightly clawed nails. I hadn't realized my squirrel form could pur, I guessed that was more of my base form that I brought over. I liked it, purring didn't just express my happiness, it actually made me feel more calm and comfortable.

As she carried me to her room I explained how I could theoretically channel life mana to learn new forms. I still hadn't done it that way on purpose yet.

"Well that seems pretty simple, you just want me to wander around inside the guild, and you'll do the rest. No big deal, how long should I stay?"

"You probably don't need to wander much, just get some place in the middle of all their animals, I have a rather large range. I'll try to tell you with mind speech when I'm done, I don't know how long it will take, or even if I'll find anything. I feel like I should be picky, with how my new forms seem to add to my Spirit Beast form, I want quality over quantity for sure."

"Uh huh, and the squirrel form is an example of a high quality shift?"

"Very!"

I didn't elaborate, but the mana crystals the elemental squirrels came with were fantastic.

She took me into her room, and set me on her bed while she looked around for a bag she could carry me in. She picked out a leather bag that closed with a flap. It was a little large for my current form, when she looked inside the bag, she clicked her tongue, and opened her closet. I was a little surprised to see she had a lot of outfits inside that weren't the mage robes I always saw her wearing. She nodded as she pulled out a white shirt, and put it in the bottom of the bag. "That one is old, tear it up to make yourself comfortable if you need to."

She picked me up, and gently placed me in the bag. I shifted the shirt that she had put inside to make a nice bed for myself.

"Are you ready?"

"Yep! I'm going to start channeling while you walk I think. Might as well, no idea what I might find on the way. Did you know that there's a spider in the rafters of the guild hall with death Concept venom?"

"No, and I didn't want to know about that, thank you very much. Please tell me you aren't thinking of picking that up as a form." Torill pulled the flap on the bag shut. I did not hear her buckle it, so I could probably easily push my way out if I felt the need.

I had a hard time responding to her while I was in the bag, but found if I focused on my sense of her through Sense Mind, I could still do it.

"I was thinking about it. The old me hated spiders, but I don't think I mind them so much. It could make a useful form."

Torill's voice was slightly muffled through the bag, but with my hearing, I could understand her just fine. "I won't get in your way if you think it's a good idea, but I'm with your old self, spiders are pretty icky."

I thought about it. Venom would be useful, but I wasn't sure what that would do to my fangs. My knowledge from earth told me that spider silk could be very useful too if I gained the ability to create lots of it. But as I thought about it I worried about the fact that I didn't know what it would do to my true form. A carapace sounded like it could act like great natural armor, but the cat in me recoiled at the prospect. I also really didn't want to risk picking up extra limbs or something. So I decided it would be a bad idea. I also didn't want to make myself in any way icky to Torril. I was really starting to like her as a person. The more I got to know her, the more I enjoyed her company. I was glad it was becoming more than an instinctive attraction to a pretty lady.

I heard the gate open and close while I was considering the spider form.

"I thought about it, I won't take the spider form."

"That's nice, I don't want you to have made the choice because I said it was icky though."

I heard her sigh, and felt the need to clarify. "I made the decision for other reasons too."

"Okay hun, that's good. Now, I can totally get away with talking to air as a Spiritualist, but I'd really rather avoid the strange looks from people who don't know what class I am. Why don't you get started?" Something told me that she did not entirely believe me when I said I made the choice for more reasons than just her distaste. It was slightly unfair, she even knew I was Honest.

"Oh, yeah okay."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I began to channel my life mana core, using the Aspect I had discovered earlier that could survey the area for new forms.

There wasn't much of any interest at all. I noticed that my ability to sense things was cut off at the walls of all the guild compounds. It seemed like they all had some sort of shielding. When I wondered who supplied the shields, I gained access to the knowledge that the System automatically shielded guild claimed areas from non-members as a part of its normal functions.

It wasn't a very long trip to the Hunter's guild. Since there wasn't much to see in the area, I was looking through Torill's eyes. It was something I was sure she was aware of, and could easily have stopped me from doing. I didn't attempt to connect with her mind, and I didn't really feel like her form was something that I could learn, I already had a demihuman form after all.

There was a bored looking man at the gate, who simply asked what Torill's business with the guild was. When she said she was there to see the animals, he charged her a whole gold piece, which seemed like quite a lot if my knowledge of the value of those coins was accurate.

He told her to stay away from the roped off area, the "sky terrors" were nesting, and the male was currently aggressive with everyone and everything that came close. He said the guild wouldn't be responsible for the trip to the healer if Torill went past the ropes. After the warning, he told her to have a nice time, and let her in.

The moment the bag I was in crossed the threshold my senses expanded. I left Torill, and my sleeping body behind. There were many beasts roaming the lightly wooded area surrounding the few buildings in the hunter's guild compound. One thing I noticed immediately was that there was no prey here. Every single bird and beast in the guild was a predator in their own right.

It was amazing to see them all lounging around each other peacefully. I could tell their hierarchy had long ago been established, and none of them considered themselves to be the leader. Their leader was a human who was taking his time talking to Torill, he seemed to be very interested in showing her his pack. His flirting was exceptionally blatant, Torill smiled at him, and went along with him as he described his animals, and called them over to greet her.

I was somewhat amused by Torill's smile, since it lacked its normal brilliance. Her eyes had none of their normal sparkle, except when she was petting the animals, she definitely seemed to enjoy that. I was surprised that none of the animals seemed to be too interested in the bag that my currently prey shaped body was in.

I pulled my attention away from Torill, and the human pack leader. I was sure that there wasn't a chance in the world that someone as high level for Brightwood as Torill would need my help handling an unwanted suitor.

I put my attention on the animals. Despite there being all sorts of new predators to look at, none of them really sang to me. That is until my consciousness moved to a tree surrounded by a rope fence. I understood immediately why they were called Sky Terrors.

They weren't birds, they reminded me a little of the feathered dinosaurs from Angela's memories, she remembered playing a couple games that featured them. They seemed something close to a microraptor, or archaeopteryx. She wasn't absolutely clear on the distinction between the two, so neither was I, but they were both small flying lizard creatures. Something in the memories yelled at me that dinosaurs weren't really lizards, but these things weren't really dinosaurs, so I found the mental argument I was having with Angela's memories to be moot.

The two specimens in the hunter's guild seemed very large, and healthy. The male had to weigh twenty pounds, which struck me as extremely heavy for an animal that could fly. His body was around three feet long, not including his long scaled tail that doubled his length and ended in a collapsible fan of feathers.

There were also a number of things that didn't quite match the dinosaurs in my other self's memory. He didn't have much in the way of feathers on his back legs, just a small line of them that looked like they could flare out for display, not anything that could help with flight. His jaws looked shorter than the ones of the video game dinosaur, but much more robust. Something about them screamed that his bite was dangerous, perhaps more dangerous than his large hind claws.

He seemed somehow aware of my approach as he was scanning the area looking for whatever was so bold and stupid to come near his mate and who was sleeping in a large nest in the center of the tree. He flared out a crest of feathers around his head, as well as his tail fan. As I drew closer, he hissed loudly, and snapped his toothy jaws at the air.

I couldn't help but notice some saliva dripping from his mouth, it contained a potent venom that carried death tuned Concepts. I could sense how it would rot the flesh of whatever it came in contact with, and the unlucky victim would also likely be unable to stop the bleeding from whatever wound the sky terror created.

The creature was gorgeous, his plumage was bright blue, with bands of red and yellow on his wings, and tail fan. The scales on his face, tail, and feet were matte black. His mate was entirely black, I didn't find her as interesting to my senses as the male though. Her venom wasn't as potent, and her sleeping state made her almost a non-entity to my senses.

I moved my mind into the agitated male. He spread his enormous wings, his wingspan had to be at least six feet, and jumped from his branch. The feathered lizard flew a few circles around the tree that held his mate. I could tell my intrusion confused him, he no longer sensed me, as I had connected my mind to his own, and was now a part of him as far as whatever senses he was using to detect me were concerned.

I felt how easy flying was for this creature, despite his size. The air seemed to react to his movements, and aid him. It saw this creature as a friend, much like it did me.

After he verified that there was nothing threatening his mate, he landed on the edge of the nest to check on her. She woke at his arrival, and I could feel them connecting to each other's minds. It was almost mind speech, these two were close to beginning the transition to hopefully become spirit beasts, I could sense something inside the male that might soon form a core. I hoped it would form correctly, and not shatter for either of them, since I could feel how much the male cared about his mate. If either failed to make a core, and became a monster, the other would die. It didn't matter if it was from their own mate killing them, or from depression. I wondered what would happen to their connection to whoever their master was if they did become spirit beasts. I hadn't sensed any spirit beasts among the tamed animals, and hoped that didn't mean that any creatures who made the transition were slaughtered by the hunters, or something tragic like that.

Once the male had made absolutely certain that his mate was fine, he left her to return to her rest. He moved strangely, not at all like a bird, using claws on the joint of his wings as forelimbs. He climbed up to a higher branch, and crawled along it on all fours until he found a spot where he had a good view and stood on his hind legs. The creature folded his wings to his sides, and returned to scanning the area, alert for possible intruders.

I made sure to intentionally commit every part of his body to memory. From his oversized rear claws, to the glands in his mouth that produced a venomous saliva. This creature was a worthy addition, even if one didn't consider its ability to fly.

I was observing the creature for a long while before I felt his form become a part of my being. I knew then how my desire, conscious, or unconscious, pulled my intimate knowledge of a creature into my Assume Form ability.

Having gotten what I came for, I pulled away from the sky terror. My ability somehow felt strained, even if there was another animal in the hunter's guild that I was interested in, I wouldn't be able to learn it.

I felt my Assume Form ability needed time before I could add more to it. Perhaps learning two forms in such a short time was its limit. Whatever the case, I returned to my own body, and shifted my core to pure mana. I peaked my little head out of the bag, making sure that I was still mostly hidden by the flap.

Torill was sitting under a tree, leaning on a large female dire wolf, with a blanket of sleeping puppies over her lap. She seemed pretty content, the human who had been flirting with her was nowhere near.

"I think I'm done, whenever you want to leave is good."

She jumped a little when I spoke into her mind, disturbing the puppies, who seemed to take it as a wake up call to begin rough housing right on top of her.

She sighed, moving carefully, and masterfully to usher the playful pups off her lap. She thanked the female wolf for letting her enjoy her children for a while, giving the large animal a parting scratch behind her ears. I had a feeling the mother wolf would miss the lady who came in to distract her energetic young.

Once she had carried me out of the hunter's guild area, she asked. "So, did you get something good? That took a few hours, it's almost sunset."

"Sky Terror"

I said, I included a mental picture of the male, as well as a small portion of the things I knew about it now.

"Oh! That sounds amazing, I wonder what it will be like when you use it?"

"Me too!"

I couldn't wait to test the new form out. It was really the first change to my being that I had a real conscious choice in since I was incarnated into this life, and it was a terrifying venomous flying lizard. I wasn't sure what that said about me.