Once we passed through the Adventurers guild gates, I jumped out of the bag. I was practically vibrating with excitement, I wanted to try out my new form right away. I wanted to fly!

I pictured the form, and triggered the shift. I wasn't too bothered with getting it perfect, I just wanted it to be able to do what was important for it. I was on all fours on the ground, I realized that this was not the optimal position to be in if I wanted to try to fly.

I was able to push myself up onto my strong hind legs, but the balance did not come naturally to me. I held my wings out to my sides, and moved them awkwardly, trying to get my footing.

I heard Torill giggle at my awkward showing.

"You okay there Angel? You look like a hatchling moving like that."

I turned my head to look at her, promptly lost my balance, and fell over. I let out a rumbling hiss in frustration, for some reason my instincts didn't seem to have kicked in.

"Fine, I'm fine, I think I need to try to shift to a bit more accurately."

"Uh huh, I'm pretty sure sky terrors are not supposed to be fluffy." She giggled again, I looked over what I'd turned into, and she was right, since I hadn't focused on getting things right, I was a partly furred, partly feathered creature. Maybe this form could fly and move like the one at the hunter's guild, but I actually kind of doubted it.

I focused on my Assume form, concentrating on getting it perfect this time.

When the form settled over me, I felt the difference immediately. My instincts seemed to morph with my form when I got it right.

I was able to stand easily, I held my wings out, and flapped them experimentally, this was a mistake. I was not mentally prepared to take flight yet, but the air mana responded instantly.

Before I could register what was happening, I found myself flying ten feet off the ground, and at a speed I just had not anticipated, having seen the much slower flight of the male when he circled the tree. I quickly found myself flapping my wings to gain altitude so I wouldn't crash into the guild hall. I wasn't thinking clearly enough figure out how to let the wind mana know I didn't want to fly yet, and it still seemed to want to propel me higher and faster.

Even with instincts helping it took a minute for me to feel like I was in any kind of control. By that time I was almost out of town, and the buildings below me looked like chidren's toys. I leaned to the left, and followed my instincts on how to execute a turn.

Once I had control of my movement, I began to rejoice in the sensation of flight. It was definitely amazing, and with the mana's help I didn't have to spend any of my own energy to stay aloft. I circled the town, I didn't want to leave the area just in case the Guildmaster's Decree was still in any way functional. My eyes were exceptional, combined with my perception, I could see everything going on below me in great detail. I flew over the Adventurers guild, and saw Torill looking up in the direction I had flown.

She was obviously worried, I tried to send something to her mind, but I got the feeling that she was too far away for me to reach. I circled the guild, slowly working out how to decrease my altitude, thankfully the air mana seemed to get the idea, and didn't fight me.

When I tried to land the first time, I had to abort at the last moment, because I was going too fast. I thankfully got it on the second try. It wasn't the most graceful landing, and I wound up skidding a bit on all fours, but I was happy I didn't hurt myself.

I heard Torill clapping. "That was really good! I was really worried when you just took off like that, though."

"Me too!" I said, leaking a little bit of the surprise and panic I had felt when the air decided to take me for a ride.

"Awww!" She ran over and patted me on my feathered head. I raised my head into her hand, instinctively leaning it forward and fluffing up so she could get under my feathers.

The lovely lady took the cue, and scratched my neck.

"Maybe you should practice some more? See if you can get a little better at controlling yourself when you take off, and land." She pulled her hand away, which made me vocalize a little in protest, it was an interesting sound. Not quite a growl, not quite a hiss, it came from deep in my throat.

"That's not very nice mister, now go learn to fly or no more neck scratches for you." She said, giggling the whole time, she definitely wasn't at all intimidated by the sky terror on the ground in front of her.

I turned myself towards her, and stood to my full height, with my neck fully extended I was maybe four feet tall. I hadn't gained much, if any, size over the one in the guild, which made sense if he was almost a Spirit Beast already.

I held out my wings, and fluffed out the crest on my head. The air mana thankfully seemed to realize that I wasn't trying to take off this time. I lifted the end of my tail, and flared my tailfeathers. I growled loudly, I was trying to show off how intimidating this form could be, but something told me that this was not actually a threat display I was instinctively performing for Torill.

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She laughed. "Yes yes, big strong lizard bird, now go show me how you can fly better than a newly fledged hatchling."

I snapped my jaws together a couple times, making a clicking sound, and shook my head as I lowered myself to a more comfortable position.

"You're no fun."

A lie that blatant, isn't a lie at all, is what I told myself.

"Uh huh, now show me some improvement, or no more scratching." She wiggled her fingers at me, repeating her threat.

I snapped at the air in protest, before I turned away from her and did my best take off. I was much, much more in control the second time. The mana seemed to have just been overly excited the first time around. Because while it still lent me its aid in every move I made in the air, it did not try to take me screaming off into the distance at high speed.

I circled a few times, practiced gaining altitude, and lowering myself. I slowed down, and spurred myself to great speed. Then I practiced taking off, and landing over and over again until it became ingrained in my head, and night had fallen. I was surprised just how good my night vision was in the sky terror form. Night flying would not be ideal, but it also wouldn't be gravely dangerous.

I was a little tuckered out by the time Torill told me I had to stop for dinner. I had seen Nefen and Samuel trudge into the guild grounds some time ago, but decided not to bother them. It was a good time to quit since I was panting a little, and I lacked the energy to keep my wings tucked to my sides evenly.

I still waddled up to Torill, and stuck my neck out in front of her shamelessly. I let my chest rest on the ground, and allowed my wings to sprawl out to my sides.

Her laugh was music to my ears, as she leaned down to give me my promised neck scratches. I closed my eyes and enjoyed it.

"Yah know what that is yer scratching right?" I heard a gravelly voice I barely recognized as Krassis, this morning having been the first time I'd really ever heard him talk.

"It's Angel, he won't do anything to hurt me if he can help it." Torill said, confidently.

"Ahh, yeah, you were gonna get 'em something new. Sky terror seems a damn good choice, I remember hearing bout how long it took for me to heal the last time I tangled with one. Was 'fore they started sendin' you to watch over me. I'm told the fucker kept diving at me till it got me away from where I had just finished killing some monsters. I don't know if it was protecting somethin' or just hungry for my kills. I only know what my watcher said, and the fella who watched me back then couldn't get close enough tah see. Whatever the reason, it left fuckin scars. 'Zerkers don't usually scar no matter how bad the wound."

I looked at the man who was interrupting my neck scratches. I was kind of happy that the news this morning seemed to have brought out his social side, and he seemed sober. But man, did I ever wish he had better timing. Torill had entirely stopped with her reward for all my efforts.

I heaved a dejected sigh.

She smacked me lightly on the head. "Enough fooling around, it's time to change back so we can have dinner, I know you're hungry."

The lady had my number, I was hungry, I had been hungry for hours. I had just gotten very, very good at ignoring it.

I got back up onto my hind legs, resummoned my clothes which took the form of jesses on my legs, and shifted to my demihuman form. I could feel how my form had changed. From small to large, mentally documented the changes.

I had some small feathers mixed into my fur, they were downy, and the same color as the fur that surrounded them, they were hardly noticeable, but they were there, and they seemed to give me greater control over how my fur laid on me. I could now fluff out or flatten my fur on command, which didn't seem terribly useful.

There was a line of much larger, more noticeable feathers on my forearms. I had to roll up the long sleeves of my shirt to see them. They were white with black bands, and when I touched them, they felt hard and perhaps a little sharp. They seemed to want to stay flat against my arm, but I flared them out once experimentally. As soon as I stopped intentionally flaring them, they snapped back down. I got the feeling that they would always stay down unless I moved them on purpose.

My toe claws could hardly be said to be fully retractable anymore, they had grown so large that I could easily see them when I looked at my feet.

My tail had the fan of feathers from the sky terror's tail. I felt like I could probably flare them out to help me have better balance if I needed to.

I was also not sure how I felt about the venom in my saliva. It was every bit as potent as the stuff the sky terror was packing. I would have to be aware of that going forward.

Krassis, and Torill watched my self inspection quietly.

When I looked up, Torill looked at me curiously. "You don't pick out what transfers over from your new forms do you?"

"Nope, I can make them go away, but I have to focus when I shift, and the next time I shift they'll still show up. It's because I instinctively want to bring over the most powerful parts of all my forms. What my instincts choose is sometimes a complete surprise to me. I'm just glad I didn't pick up any colors." I ran my claws through my mane self-consciously.

"Did yah get the venom? That stuff's gotta be the most powerful bit." Krassis asked, seeming a bit curious, perhaps despite himself.

I nodded. "Yeah, I can tell it's there, not sure how I feel about it. I don't exactly know what the stuff will do to the silverware." I grinned a little, trying to make light of my new, potentially deadly addition.

"Yah make it sound like a joke, but that shit can kill, I'd say you make sure an' keep what yah use for yerself. Or shift away that venom for dinner, maybe both." He looked deadly serious, and I nodded, he was right, and even shifting the glands away might not remove what was already there.

I wondered about my own resistance to my venom, my instincts told me there was nothing to worry about. The sky terrors were immune to their own venom, and I now shared that immunity. So I didn't have to worry about some small cut on my tongue causing my face to rot off, or anything of that nature.

"Speaking of dinner? Let's go eat, I'm definitely ready." Torill said, as she grabbed me by the hand to pull me along, she seemed to be doing that a lot all of a sudden. I wondered if it was going to be a common occurrence, I couldn't say I minded too much if it was.

Krassis chuckled, then he announced. "Ivo n' Pierce are throwin' a bit of a party in there. Sent me out to fetch their guest of honor. Heh, I jus' got meself sober too. Ahh well, drinking fer celebration's different. Let's head in."

"Ah, because of what Randy did? I don't know that I'm the one they should be honoring." I scratched my neck.

Torill put an arm around me. "You brought that admin's attention to them, just accept the praise. Let's have some fun."

The three of us made our way to the guild hall and apparently, a party.