Arthur had a general idea of where to go based the information listed in the class schedule and campus map. Getting closer, he assumed the group of twelve people standing in a loose circle at field E were there for the same class as Tom and him.
Surprisingly, he noticed Vincent in the group as well, who appeared to be discussing something with a student.
Vincent seemed to notice their approach and waved while continuing his conversation. Arthur and Tom joined the circle and stayed silent waiting to see what would happen.
As time passed, more students joined the group which now numbered around thirty-five students standing around the field. Arthur noticed some familiar faces from his first class, but many of the students were new to him.
They watched as Vincent backed out a conversation and addressed the group in a booming voice. “Welcome to your second class of the day which will be on transformations. My name is Vincent and I’ll be your instructor.”
“Considering many of you are new to the school, I’ll be keeping everything at an introductory level and making sure we’re all caught up each step of the way.”
“Before I begin, does anyone have a guess as to why this class is called transformations?”
A boy with black hair from one of the bigger circles spoke up saying, “I’m guessing something to do with how we can change form into animals?”
“Yes!” Vincent exclaimed, “Simple explanation but perfect. The exact science of how the cells in your bodies can morph will be explained in a higher-level course so I’ll save that honor for your future instructors.”
“For now, know that you each possess the ability to copy the genetic information contained in organic samples and use them to change form into that organism. I’m glad you mentioned animals because it’s important to note no one has bonded with a plant before.”
Arthur raised his hand and Vincent pointed to him. He asked, “Can you copy the genetic information from another person?”
“Good question!” Vincent responded. “To our current knowledge, no one is modern times has managed to transform into another person, but historical records indicate it was possible at one point. Scholars speculate that the issue lies in rituals lost to time, but no one is certain.”
Vincent continued his lecture stating, “Now, one thing you all might have noticed is how many people there are in this course. Your last course should have had exactly twenty five students but here we are with almost one and a half times as many students.”
“The reason lies partially in the history of this region. North America was one of the first epicenters for transformation abilities. All of you are likely related to those original transformation users.”
“You’ll see other types of ability epicenters in South America, Asia, and Africa in addition to rarer abilities from more isolated communities but that’s a discussion for your next class.”
“For now, just know that transformation is something of a specialty for the region and our school in particular. I take great pride in being your instructor and look forward to teaching you for the next year.”
“First. A little history,” Vincent said with a grin as his right arm shifted to that of a bird. If not for the traveling they’d done together, Arthur likely wouldn’t have recognized it as the wing of a peregrine falcon. He was most shocked by Vincent’s mastery of partial shifting. ‘No wonder he’s teaching this class. I don’t even think I can partial shift any part of my body. Not that I’ve even tried.’
Vincent stood motionless in front of the students and spoke up saying, “Be amazed! What you just witnessed stumped the scientific world for hundreds of years.”
“Some cultural scholars believe the ability to transform originated from a place of reverence or worship for animals while others saw it as a representation of a connection to nature.”
“We now know the ability to transform relies on your connection to an individual animal. While not a direct translation, much of the theory behind transformation is similar to that of electricity.”
“Each person has a set amount of energy inside them. That energy is depleted during the process of transformation in addition to other abilities that will be explored in your fundamentals class.”
“Every second you spend transformed will take a bigger draw on your energy pool. Changing into a larger animal will require more energy to maintain.”
“Forming a bond with an animal is equally energy intensive. Maintaining bonds also has a draw on your energy reserves. This limits the number of bonds you can have.”
“While it may seem like a good idea to have a variety of bonds, too many will quickly exceed your ability to recover energy.”
“That energy is recovered with rest and food intake but can take time. You are able to increase your recovery rate with training in addition to increasing your total energy amount over time.”
“Think of your energy reserve as a muscle in this sense that flexing it and exercising the skill will allow it to grow stronger.”
“You can strain that muscle as well so be careful not to overdo it or you’ll be out of class for at least a week.”
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“Last but not least, this is a safe training ground and I’ll be watching every second so feel free to test your limits as well.”
Vincent panned his eyes across everyone in the class as he said, “Does all of that make sense?”
Arthur mentally beat himself up for not bring a notebook to jot things down. Hopefully Tom got at least some of that.
During summer school, Vincent had told them not to look up too much on their abilities or transformation since it wouldn’t be covered on the entrance exam, but now Arthur found himself craving more information on the subject.
How could he increase the amount of energy he had available? He thought back to Tom explaining his fall from the sky while transformed and wondered again what had happened.
He had no memory of the event, but something was obviously wrong in that moment. Now he felt like finding the answer was a matter of safety more than just a peculiarity. If he couldn’t find an answer the issue might keep happening.
Vincent continued saying, “Good. Now with the starting information out of the way, let’s get to what we’re really here for. Practice!”
“Everyone follow me to the changing rooms please.” At the edge of the field stood a large shed with two entrances for students. Arthur and Tom went to the right with students dividing themselves.
Vincent stood between the entrances to both changing rooms. He shouted into each side saying, “Be sure to use the restroom before coming back out. I don’t want to clean this field after class.”
“Also be sure to pile your clothes up if possible since you’ll be coming back here after class to change. You have the option to shower here or at home but please don’t shift outside the changing rooms to preserve modesty. Thank you!”
Arthur, Tom and the other male students began taking off their shirts and pants, folding them in neat piles.
Arthur could have sworn he saw another nearby student fixating on his necklace.
He kept changing out of his clothes, but felt like the other student’s eyes were piercing into the back of his skull. Each time he turned, the other student made eye contact without looking away. Arthur turned back to his locker again and focused on finishing taking his clothes off.
‘Weird,’ Arthur thought to himself.
At that point, he heard Vincent from outside the shed say, “Without further ado, everyone go ahead and shift.”
The group’s reaction was not instantaneously, but a select few students didn’t need to be told twice and instantly bit down or scratched some part of their body to draw blood.
Arthur and Tom saw numerous students pull claws, teeth or other animal parts out of their pockets to begin the process as well.
Arthur scrambled for something sharp but realized he’d left his needle at home and opted for biting down on the fore finger of his right hand.
Looking around, he saw Tom had already bit into his thumb and was stuffing a small gray feather into the bleeding scrape.
Arthur’s finger was finally bleeding, and he quickly inserted his yellow feather into the flow.
He was relieved to finally have his transformation under way while some of the other students in the class still hadn’t seemed to make a move.
Arthur was less relieved when birds, mammals and numerous other animals began appearing after ten, twenty and thirty seconds.
By the time Arthur and Tom had transitioned, only five other students were still waiting and some of them had started late.
Arthur never thought of his transformation as slow but based on what he just witnessed, almost every other transformation student in the class was ahead.
He felt even more self-conscious standing on the ground in his gold finch form looking up at a nearby deer, bald eagle and bear.
Tom was similarly stunned with his head moving side to side taking in all the other student’s new forms. Most of the animals native to North America were represented here with small mammals and birds making up the majority.
At Vincent's urging from outside, everyone began exiting the changing room with two lines of animals merging into one as they surrounding Vincent in the field.
"Let's begin!" Vincent exclaimed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tom couldn’t shake the feeling of déjà vu as he flew back and forth doing the flight equivalent of sprints.
Vincent somehow managed to be more oppressive even though there were more students to keep track of and micromanage.
The man certainly knew how to administer a workout.
He’d broken them down into groups based on general animal type of instructed each group to begin a variety of specialized movement exercises.
Arthur, Tom and the eight other aerial members of the class were currently flying a thirty foot distance as quickly as possible before performing a midair 180 degree turn and flying back to the starting line.
Vincent had told them the exercise would “increase their aerial maneuverability”, before darting off to a group of ungulates.
Tom mainly felt an increase in pain near the base of his neck with each flip but Vincent hadn’t led them astray yet.
He looked back and saw Arthur expertly turn in the air before flapping hard at the apex of his turn to regain speed. Tom wondered if it looked that smooth when he did it. He really hoped so.
They’d been at this same exercise for ten minutes now and he was starting to feel it in his wings.
Thankfully Vincent arrived from helping another group and ordered them all to stop which Tom.
“Good! Now do the same exercises vertically instead of horizontally! Shoot for around thirty feet up before turning if you can. I’ll be back in another ten minutes.”
Vincent kept returning and giving exercises to all the groups for the full fifty-minute period of class.
Around when Tom felt like he could no longer lift his wings off the ground, Vincent dismissed them to the locker room to shower and change before their next class.
Tom began hopping toward the cinderblock building at the edge of the field. He heard Arthur flailing behind him equally struggling. Looking around the rest of the class appeared to be equally struggling to drag themselves to the changing rooms.
It would have been easier if they could shift back, but he understood the need for “modesty” as he called it. Tom didn’t really care much about that but he could see other people being uncomfortable, so he was happy to oblige.
At the locker room, he shifted back to human form and quickly slipped on the underwear from his pile.
Arthur did the same next to him as the other students clambered in to change as well. Tom noticed a nearby wolf shift into the boy from before who had been staring at Arthur and tried again to remember his face.
While he did have great attention to detail, Arthur usually wasn’t super aware of people around him and this guy had been giving Arthur the stink eye for most of class. Tom wasn’t sure what that was about but figured he’d asl Arthur once they were done with classes.
Fully clothed, Tom felt slightly sweaty but didn’t think he had time before his next class called “Foundations”. He started walking out of the changing room with Arthur right behind him. Tom remembered Arthur had literature next which was a long walk from the field to one of the smaller study buildings around campus.
Tom thanked Vincent for class before heading to the sidewalk circling the field and beginning his walk to Foundations class. The class appeared to be unique in that it was outdoors near the forest. Some of the larger trees were labeled on the map and Tom turned left to make his way over.
From behind, Arthur turned right on the sidewalk and making his trek to literature class.
Both were tired but excited for their next classes with a mutual, “See you soon,” muttered over their shoulders.