The next few weeks flew by as Mina dove into her official training as a novice beast tamer. Her classes were manageable for the most part, and she only had trouble with algebra and alchemy. Working with Pet in the mornings was definitely the highlight of her days. The poor thing became more intractable once the shock of his situation wore off, and Journeyman Valda was the type to liberally apply negative reinforcement. Mina wasn't too happy with that approach but it was the only option during the first weeks of initial transformation. Today was going to break with the routine though. It marked the end of the first month of training. All of the new familiars would be examined in depth to see how their training and transformations were coming along.

Mina woke with the rising of the sun, she threw open the large windows in her room gazing down at the bustling valley spread out beneath her. A light fog obscured her view of the transition pens in the far back of the Retreat. She inhaled, taking in a breath of crisp morning air. Mina shivered, sensing the drop-in temperature. When she looked up to study the forested slopes of the mountains she noticed that most of the trees had dropped their leaves in preparation for the long sleep of winter. Her brow furrowed in worry, reptiles didn't do well in the cold. Luckily the pens were enchanted to remain at a steady, albeit low, temperature. Now that winter was setting in they would have to remember to put up the roof in Pet's stall. Allowing him to get snowed on would be a very bad idea.

After she closed the windows Mina hurried to throw on the clean Novice uniform she had laid out the night before. She flew down the hallway into the dining room, pausing there only long enough to snatch up some fruit and a piece of toast. When she turned to leave the room she ended up running nose-first into her older brother.

"Woah there." Kane reached out, catching Mina by the shoulders before she could fall. "Where are you off to in such a rush?" He asked with a teasing smile.

Mina pouted. "Big brother today is our first inspection. I have to get to Pet early, everything needs to be perfect." She stomped her foot petulantly. Mina only ever showed her childish side to her family and close friends.

"Right. They do monthly inspections for the first year. Gods am I glad third years are only inspected once every three months. First-year inspections are the worst because you only have a very vague idea of what you are working with." Kane grimaced in remembrance. His trio hadn't been able to start on specialized training until their familiar's fur came in during the eighth month. After that, they knew she was some sort of polar bear. But those first few months had felt like being stuck in limbo.

The fifteen-year-old stepped away from the door. "Alright Mina, I won't get in your way. Better hurry if you want to finish your last-minute preparations." He chuckled.

The girl stuck out her tongue in a fit of childish peak, racing out the door and down the stairs. She ate as she walked, first the toast and then a pair of sweet juicy pears. She skirted around the residential district and took the most direct route to Pet's pen. Talin and Sasha had agreed to meet there rather than meeting up at the dormitory housing those novices without family at the Retreat. The walkways were crowded with novices hurrying to their familiar's pens early in the morning. Mina paused at an intersection, turning to look at the section at the center of the transition pen. The area was fenced in by thirty-foot stone walls, inlaid with metal runes that glistened in the morning light. The gates were made of thick black oak clad in iron, above which the words Apex were carved into the stone.

Part of Mina wondered wistfully what went on in there, almost regretting that she had turned down the chance to work with the Chimera. Still, she would earn her own place within those walls. Nodding determinedly Mina strode towards Section 42. When she entered the pen she found Pet dozing sunlight. With a sharp whistle, she grabbed his lead and brought him into the bathing room for an early grooming. Pet groaned as she clipped the chain to the bar, placing his legs in the limb shackles.

***

Mark

Mark studied Mina warily as she got to work washing him. The past days had seen him falling into a routine with an ease that surprised and sickened him. His ability to adapt to even the worst of circumstances disgusted him. One day just bled into the next, Mark's only way to tell the passage of time was by the rising and setting of the sun. He hadn't seen a clock since the day he drank that awful potion. The very sameness of his schedule had caused him to lose complete track of time. Still, Mark had learned quickly that any kind of disruption in that routine was normally a precursor to some new form of hell. Last week, Jake had made an attempt to quit drinking the strange red potion. The young boy's quiet attempt at rebellion had been discovered by the third day and he had been left in shackles for the rest of the week. They had done something to his food. Put something in it that made him vomit horribly if he tried to eat without some of the ruby liquid in his system.

Mark himself hadn't had much luck on that front. Valda's speculation about Mark becoming a larger reptile seemed to be frighteningly accurate. No matter how much he tried to stop himself from eating or drinking that stuff he found himself unable to stop. His appetite seemed to only be growing stronger with the passage of time. The weekly measurements Mark was put through seemed to support the theory. His arms, in particular, were growing noticeably longer and thicker, their proportions beginning to match his legs. Mark's arms were becoming forelegs. With that rapid growth, it was actually beginning to feel natural to move around on all fours.

His skin was hot and itchy, so itchy that Mark found himself unable to resist the urge to scratch. His skin was cracking and peeling away, falling to the ground in small white flakes, and exposing a lizard-like hide that had grown beneath it. The brown potion the novices rubbed on him every time they groomed him began to show its use as it gave the hide a supple glossy sheen. The new hide was raw and tender, almost delicate, like that of a newborn. The skin on and around Mark's ears was especially irritated. No matter how hard he rubbed and scratched at them nothing seemed to bring him relief.

Mark's voice had continued to drop in register, deepening even further. The rasp was becoming more prominent as well, giving the boy an odd accent of sorts. He was finding it harder to keep the animal-like growls and snarls out of his speech. His tail had begun to emerge, although it was still only six inches long, and that on its own was horrifically painful. It felt as if his spine had caught fire as it continued to lengthen.

The pain in his back and limbs was so severe that Mark found himself drinking more and more of the odd red potion. Desperate for any relief from the agony. Mark found himself moving more gingerly. Each careful movement calculated as to what would cause the least pain.

"I know it hurts Pet. A new body takes getting used to. You'll feel better once you're fully grown." Mina soothed as she finished grooming him, scratching him behind the ear. She did something similar every time she visited Mark. The boy recognized it as a way of emphasizing her dominance. The worst part was that the scratching felt good against his sensitive ears. Most likely Mina knew that. Not only did it assert her authority over him, but it also reminded him of his descent into animalism. The most disgraceful thing was that Mark couldn't even conceal that enjoyment, his tail flicking happily at the relief. Each time it happened Mark would lower his head in shame, aware that he was wagging his tail like a dog. Mark couldn't help it, having little to no control over his new appendage. The betrayal of his own body simply added to his degradation.

Unclipping the chain Mina led him out of the grooming room and back to his stall. Instead of going back into his stall Mina kept hold of Mark's leash as she waited in the hall for her partners. Talin and Sasha had arrived while she was bathing him. Something was definitely different today. It wasn't just Mina who was breaking from their routines. Talin was going over the sandpit, repeatedly raking up the sands as he went through them with a fine-tooth comb. Sasha too was much more meticulous today, carefully measuring out portions of Mark's food.

Once Talin finished cleaning the stall he properly stowed away the tools rather than just throwing them into the tack room. He then moved over near Sasha pressing his palm against the transparent wall separating the tack room from Mark's stall. Lines of blue light extended from the redhead's hand like veins. They expanded until they encompassed all four walls of Mark's stall, even crawling onto the back stone wall. A series of runes appeared by Talin's hand and he tapped one, causing a slanted plane of light to appear above the walls. It was Mark realized forming a roof. As Talin removed his hand the light faded away leaving only a slight distortion in the light filtering through the now transparent roof into Mark's stall.

He and Sasha then moved to stand rigidly at attention on either side of Mina and Mark. A similar scene was playing out in Jake's stall, the boy had been released from the shackles in his stall. His eyes looked haunted as he huddled to the ground. The slightly raised pattern on his back was becoming more prominent as his shell grew in becoming slightly rounded. It was no longer possible for Jake to stand up straight.

When Mark looked over at Barry in silent inquiry the other boy shook his head in response. Eventually, a voice called out from the central courtyard. "Paddock B. First Year Familiar Inspection."

At those words, the gates swung open and a red-robed Master Beast Tamer was led into the room by Journeymen Valda and Riley. Mark noticed immediately that the Master Beast Tamer bore a striking resemblance to Mina. The woman's black hair was pulled back in a long hip-length braid. Her bright green eyes swept over the pen studying everything around her with keen interest. "Pen 1 has two familiars from the latest crop. I'll begin with the one in Stall 2. She spoke crisply striding into Jake's stall, inspecting it with a practiced eye.

"A one in six chance that we would be inspected by my mother and it actually happened." Mina murmured quietly under her breath.

"That's good, right?" Talin whispered back. "Master Erika will go easy on us since you're her daughter."

"Fat chance. She'll be even stricter. Don't forget my mother's chance to become a Grandmaster is riding on the results of this crop of familiars." Mina shot back.

"Great. Bad luck strikes again." Talin sighed.

"We'll be fine," Sasha whispered in an attempt to reassure herself as much as her partners. "None of us forgot anything. Pet has made so much progress since his initial transformation too."

"Here's hoping." Mina shut her mouth as her mother stepped out of Jake's stall. "The familiars stall passes inspections. The sandpit is perfectly clean, I can't find a single lump. Not a single grain outside of the pit either. You haven't put up the stall roof but that's a minor issue. Still, I would have it up before the snow starts to fly. Very few of the reptiles do well in winter conditions. Of those that do, they are only able to cope once they have come into their magic." She spoke to Journeyman Riley, but her words were clearly meant for the Novices.

Erika glanced down at a booklet in her hands. "I can see you've had a few behavioural issues with 91364. He was refusing to take the animus potion." She stated.

"We dealt with that by adding tri-arch herbs to his feed. Master Erika." Riley explained. "The extreme reaction is mitigated by the antidotal herbs inherent in the animus potion."

"That can be a dangerous course to take as more of their animal traits assert themselves. The reaction is dangerously severe in most animals. But since 91364 is a reptile the effects of the herb will lessen instead. What will you do once he obtains a resistance to the herb?"

"If the habit persists we'll have to force him to drink the potion. I don't want to add clementis flowers to the animus potion unless I absolutely have to. The addictive properties of the herb make it near impossible to wean them from the stuff once the transition is complete." Sweat dripped down Riley's face as she defended her decision, unsure if Master Erika would back her up.

"Fair enough. Take your familiar into the yard for his physical inspection. We'll check to see how his transformation is progressing." The woman nodded at Journeyman Riley and turned to pace down the corridor stopping in front of her daughter. She studied Mark with a measured gaze, judging him in a similar fashion to a horse she might purchase. Erika crouched down offering her hand to Mark who snarled at the woman. The Master Beast Tamer laughed in amusement at the display of aggression and stood back up. She opened the second booklet in her hand reading aloud from it. "Stall 3, 91161. Species, undetermined. Care assigned to Journeyman Valda and Novices Estrall, Blade, and Primus. She walked into the stall, studying it with a critical eye.

The longer the woman took with her inspection the more nervous Mark's handlers grew. Something which he took a fierce pleasure in. When the woman stepped out she nodded to Valda in approval. "You've kept his pen clean enough, the roof has been put up as well. Nothing wrong there." Erika consulted her booklet. "I see you haven't had any problems with his potion intake, but I can see a note about increasing the amount of food per meal."

"Thus far all indications are that 91161 is going to be a large beast of some type. We've begun gradually increasing the amount of food we give him and thus far his appetite appears to be keeping up. We will, of course, cut it back if he starts overeating."

"It's good that you are keeping an eye on it. Deviating from the established protocol has its risks. Still, if he's already begun growing he'll need the nutrients to fuel the transformation. It happens on occasion." Erika gave Valda a thin smile, causing the tall Journeyman to gulp audibly. "Let's see if we can't puzzle out exactly what kind of beast we're dealing with." She swept out her arm towards the courtyard, urging the group forward.

Mina tugged on Mark's leash, clucking at him in encouragement. Part of Mark wanted to dig in his heels as usual but he caught a glimpse of Valda glaring at him and decided discretion was the better part of valour today. Clearly, this so-called "inspection" was important and if Mark screwed it up the consequences would be severe. Mark emerged into the courtyard to find the other newly transitioned familiars being led towards a series of elevated platforms. The platforms were made of some sort of lightweight silvery metal. Each of them was equipped with a similar setup to the limb shackles in the grooming room.

Mark watched as Jake was physically hoisted up onto the platform and shackled in place. The developing shell made it difficult to get onto the platform and his handlers were clearly not willing to wait patiently. When Mark reached his own platform he clambered up on his own, preserving as much of his little remaining dignity as he could.

Mark twisted his head, watching as one boy after another was led out into the courtyard and guided onto the platforms. There were only about twelve other boys from the same year as Mark in this paddock. When they were all secured on the platforms Master Erika stepped forward, flanked by five other master beast tamers. Mark blushed in shame at being put on display, what little human skin that remained on him turned bright pink. He crouched down, his tail tucked tight against his body, trying to make himself seem as small as possible.

Mark was fourth in line so he got to watch as the Master Beast Tamers inspected the boys before him. They cast a series of spells that produced a variety of results, often discussing things among themselves before speaking in a low voice to the Journeyman in charge of the boy they were observing. Afterwards, they would hand a small wooden case to each Journeyman. When they reached Jake they spent some time in a lengthy discussion. Arguing, so far as Mark could tell, over the pattern on Jake's back. Finally, they seemed to reach an agreement of some sort. "At the very least the pattern on the emerging shell indicates that 91364 is going to be a sea turtle of some sort. His stall will need to be refitted for a semi-aquatic rather than a land-based reptile eventually." When of the men clothed in red declared.

"For now we won't switch the sandpit until he's progressed further with his transition. Until he finishes developing his shell and flippers swimming would be too awkward for him. We don't want him drowning himself. Neither by accident nor on purpose. Any swimming needs to be strictly supervised for the foreseeable future." A second finished the explanation.

With Jake's inspection finished it was Mark's turn to be placed under scrutiny.

"Unusual coloration." One of them said, running a finger along a patch of the hide. The tender new skin was largely black but shot through with a mesmerizing pattern of gold veins.

A second consulted her copy of Mark's profile. "He's been growing quite a bit. I see that his initial changes were all internal."

"Yes. If you look at his first weight and measurements you'll see he's grown quite a bit, particularly in the forelegs. Other then the shedding of his skin the changes seem to be focused in the skeletal and muscular structures." Erika agreed with the woman.

A fourth pinched his chin, eyebrows raised in interest. "I propose a deep seeing." He suggested. "Let's get a look at what is going on beneath the surface."

The others nodded in agreement at his suggestion. A pair worked in tandem one chanting, while the other wove an intricate pattern with their long fingers. A flash of light went off to Mark's left and he shied away, startled at the sudden change. When he opened his eyes he found himself staring at himself, a kind of reflection had been projected into mid-air. Before he could get a close look at his changed appearance the surface faded away revealing his insides.

"Fascinating. Look, he isn't just growing a tail, his torso is growing longer and his neck is lengthening as well to a lesser degree. His spine is developing more vertebrae." One of them pointed at the image.

"Almost all of his bones are showing a significant increase in density as well as size. Muscles are also showing an increase in density as well."

"Yes, and did you notice." Erika reached out, pinching the tips of Mark's ear between her fingers. "Rather than the ears receding, as is normal in a reptile, they're becoming pointed and begun to shift along the length of his skull."

"Oh yes, the common reptiles don't have ears. I'm just so used to working with cats."

"They've turned white and begun to harden as well," Erika noted clinically. "I suspect they are quite irritated." She dug her long nails in scratching hard. Mark fought the urge to lean into the sudden relief, and choked back a curse as his tail betrayed him again flicking cheerfully from side to side.

"Of course. They're turning into horns."

"Can you notice any other changes in the projection?"

"Not really. His organs have begun to shift position, and they're larger than would be normal for a human. Despite that, they still have the appearance of human organs. Except for his vocal cords, those appear to be changing drastically but we already knew that." With a slash of her hand, Erika dismissed the projection of Mark.

One of them turned to Valda and reached into his pocket for another wooden case. "He seems to be in good condition. After a month we've finally finished forging their tags, all you need to do is key it to all of you and fasten it to his collar."

Valda bowed respectfully to the Masters as they moved on. The group quickly unhitched Mark from his restraints and led him back to his stall. The Journeyman removed a pair of round metal plates and a sharp needle from the case. He quickly pricked his finger with the needle and pressed his bloody finger onto each of the metal plates. Valda then passed the objects to Talin who repeated the process, followed by Mina and Sasha. Once they completed the odd little ritual he brought the plates close to Mark's collar. Once again the strange metal merged together. Mark shook his head in surprise causing a slight jingling sound. Startled, he reached up grasping at the tags. He peered down, trying to catch a glimpse of them, but the tight fit of the collar prevented him from seeing them. He realized that the odd metal plates were dog tags, exactly like the ones his family had once given the family cat.

The Journeyman clapped his hands in satisfaction. "Today's progress inspection went well. Now that we've gotten Pet's tags we'll be able to do more in-depth training with him."

"I've heard about them before but how do the tags work?" Sasha asked curiously.

"Basically Sasha they allow us to customize and expand on the collars functions. Right now the collar is set to what the enchanters refer to as default settings. Now that we've keyed ourselves to the tags we'll be able to alter those settings. Mina your father is a strong enchanter, would you care to demonstrate."

"Yes, sir," Mina answered eagerly. She stretched out her right hand, her fingers spread wide. Between her fingers ribbons of pink light, the colour of her magic flowed merrily. "First you need to decide on what behaviour you want to reinforce or discourage. Then you need to decide how you want to do that. To finish you send the information through the chain which acts as a conduit." She took a firm hold of Mark's chain and a current of hot pink light flowed down to the collar, causing the tags to light up, shining like a small star. The light faded slowly and Mark shook his head in agitation setting off another jingling sound.

"So what did you program into the collar?" Talin quizzed.

Mina gave a wicked smirk. "That's easy. Mark come here." Startled at hearing his name from the novice Mark swung his head around to look at her. The instant he responded to his name a bolt of pain shot through him and he yelped.

"I'm sorry for being mean Pet." Mina cooed at him scratching behind the familiars developing horns. "Can you wag your tail for me Pet?" She asked just before the involuntary action started up once more.

As he obeyed a wave of pleasure washed over him and his tail wagged even faster. Mina continued to scratch his ear as she explained to the others. "Pet isn't as obviously rebellious as Plodder but he's still resistant. I noticed that while he seems to cooperate with his training he refuses to respond to his name. Now every time he speaks or responds to his old name he'll feel pain, and every time he responds to his new name he'll feel pleasure."