Arthur arrived to transformations class right as Vincent began making class announcements.

Tom was standing off on his own near the middle of the class, so Arthur joined him and refocused on Vincent’s voice.

“We’re going to begin class today the same way we’ll begin class each day this semester.”

Vincent motioned over to the changing building and pointed, “So go ahead and transform because training will always come first in this class.”

Minutes later, Vincent was surrounded by a menagerie of animals.

“Considering we’ll be starting class this way each day, go ahead and be transformed ready to go by the start of class. I’ll let you all know in advance for any days that won’t be the case.”

“Now then. Go ahead and break out into the same groups as yesterday and begin doing the same exercises. I’m setting a ten-minute timer and will be moving around providing tips and adjustments.”

Arthur and the rest of the avian students took flight and began the diving exercises once again.

He felt like he was getting the hang of it, but some part of him couldn’t shake the feeling that something was still off.

Arthur would have to ask Tom to record him trying it at home sometime to check his form.

While they were practicing, Vincent walked by and yelled out encouragement along with slight modifications to some of the flying class members.

The phrase Arthur heard from him most was ‘Retract your scapula more!’ which made sense to Arthur since he knew what a scapula was, and he could at least understand pulling his shoulders back more as he turned in midair.

He felt bad for the one student instructed to ‘push his coracoid forward more’, but maybe the others knew exactly where that was in terms of avian anatomy. Arthur certainly didn’t.

After ten minutes of flight exercises, Vincent let out a loud whistle and motioned for the class to circle around him.

“Alright everyone. Today, our main topic will be more transformation theory.”

“As we discussed yesterday, your energy reserves for shifting can be thought of as a muscle or a battery.”

“Your ability can be fatigued and even damaged, but proper training will allow you grow in a variety of ways. Every way in fact.”

“Does anyone know what I mean when I say that?”

A student from the other side of the circle away from Arthur and Tom spoke up saying, “We’ll get more comfortable using stuff like tails or weird limbs?”

Vincent turned and replied, “That and more. Imagine I tied my arms behind my back and had to type on a computer with my feet.”

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Vincent looked very excited with his explanation, but the students returned confused stares.

“In the beginning, it would be very difficult to type, but over time and given experience, I would get better. That’s just natural practice. Those of you with avian forms are likely most familiar with the experience of learning to use new limbs.”

“It was likely a challenge but over time you were able to adapt given enough time?”

Several students nodded.

“Under normal circumstances, that shouldn’t be possible.”

The other students looked more confused than before.

“If one of you had bird wings surgically attached to your torso, you would have no way to use them. No neural connections, insufficient muscle mass and multiple other physiological roadblocks stopping you from using those new limbs to fly properly.”

“All of you have exhibited the ability to use your transformed forms, however, so how is that possible?”

Vincent gave them time to answer but no one spoke up.

“The answer lies in genes.”

“When you transform, you’re directly connecting to the genetic content of another organism by using natural energy as a bridge.”

“A cheetah’s speed, a hawk’s keen eyes, a bloodhound’s sense of smell, a gorillas strength. All due to genes.”

“Each of you is able to incorporate those genes into yourselves by spending time as that animal. Every second you spend transformed allows you to incorporate more of that creature’s genes.”

Another student from the circle spoke up, “Why don’t I have a dog’s sense of smell then? I’ve been bonded to a Saint Bernard since I was ten.”

Vincent turned to the boy and replied, “If you spent every day since then as a Saint Bernard, you likely would have a much better sense of smell. In addition, you’d see many other small changes all over your body.”

“That’s part of why teachers at Silver Leaf don’t recommend students stay fully transformed all the time. Full transformation provides too many genes to keep track of and your bodies would begin pulling sequences of genetic information from everywhere all at once of whatever creatures you transform into.”

“Instead, it’s much more effective to transform only part of your body at a time if you have a desired trait in mind.”

“For example, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time with only my eyes transformed to gain the vision of a hawk. Specifically, eyes from a peregrine falcon I bonded with ten years ago.”

“Hawks have eight times the visual acuity or clarity of a human and I’ve been able to increase my normal visual acuity to approximately four times that of a normal person.”

Arthur asked, “Why not just keep your eyes transformed all the time? Then you’d always have eight times the vision."

"The issue with always keeping my eyes transformed is that I'd lock myself into that one form. Even if you have multiple bonds, you can only transform into one thing at a time. Therefore, you can only train one thing at a time."

"In unfamiliar or dangerous situations, you're much better off in your normal state than pre transformed. Let's say I have my eyes transformed and suddenly need to run away. I would need to transform back to normal and then transform into another creature that can get away."

"The thing about restricting transformation to just my eyes is that I'm stopping the spread of the transformation on purpose."

"Normally, placing a feather or claw in contact with my blood would result in me transforming fully into that creature. There is an alternative however. The transformation process usually begins and ends at the spot where you insert the foreign DNA material into your blood. For my peregrine falcon form, that is my hand.

"The trick to limiting the transformation to my eyes, is through concentrating my energy as a pulse from my eyes as soon as the feather hits my blood. The pulse allows for a new nucleation point for the transformation."

"From that point, the transformation will still spread around my body completely but from my eyes, to my neck, and down the rest of my body."

"The final step to partial transformation is completely blocking the natural energy as it attempts to spread from the nucleation point. It's the trickiest part and will take lots of practice."

Vincent spread his arms to the group, saying, "Now, let's practice!"