After getting off the bodyguarding job, it was finally time to my class. Shapeshifting.

I had been looking forward to it more and more every single day. What would Metis teach me? I mean, something about Shapeshifting was the obvious answer, but I wanted something more detailed than that. What kind of Shapeshifting.

Would I be told to turn my finger into a miniature chair, or something? Or, maybe, I would turn into a fly-fish, and get tasks to freak people out. Or maybe…

These kinds of ideas continued to surface in my mind, the next being even more abstract than the last. When I, at last, finally reached the Shapeshifting building, I had been thinking about the intricacies of making a Hybrid between a bunny and a deer. The only thing that stopped me from actually testing it out was the irritated looking Metis at the door.

“You do realize that you should have been here twenty minutes ago, right?”, she said, clearly displeased.

I look at my mental watch and realize that I was very late. Having been too absorbed in my thought processes, I didn't even bother to check the time.

“Sorry about that. Forgot to check the time”, I said, in an apologetic tone.

Metis sighed at my apology.

“You're forgiven. Just know this; Be late again, and I'm gonna make both your hands into clocks, and make it permanent. Got it?”

“Yes, Mrs.”

“Just shut up, and get inside”

Like that, she walked inside, leaving the open for me to follow. Not one wanting to make my teacher angry, I quickly followed her.

“So, what's on the schedule today?”, I ask excitedly. My mind almost goes back to its earlier mindset but is quickly slammed to the ground.

Metis smiles at me knowingly, likely dreaming of the time where she was in my stead. Must have been fun.

“Well, usually, the teacher would have a strict schedule about what to do every day. Not me. This time, you will be the one to choose what we will be doing-”

“How should I go about doing that? I mean, I don't really know about anything more than the general stuff”, I ask, promptly receiving a swift slap on the top of my head.

“Don't interrupt, or I'll slap you again. Clear? Good. You won't just be able to say that you want to learn how to turn into a Prismatic Dragon, as I will be giving you two choice.

These choice are simple and cover a wide area of shapeshifting. Choice number one is something called Shapeshifting combat. Before you ask, I am not talking about simply making claws and slashing people. I am talking about the REAL way Master Shapeshifters. It's not a fight of the physical body. It's a battle of influence. Have you heard the reason Shapeshifters are so sought after? It's their ability to influence other people's bodies. They can turn an old body young in seconds, if they have the right training, of course.

This is also the reason they are feared, though, as they could turn you into a LITERAL vegetable. I am not talking about being braindead. I'm talking about the kind of vegetable you eat. This is the way of Shapeshifting combat. If you choose this, I will teach you.

The other option is something called Advanced Shapeshifting. Advanced Shapeshifting gives the Shapeshifter two options he couldn't have ever succeeded with, without it. Full body Shapeshifting, and changing oneself to have the abilities of a Magical creature.

Without using the techniques of Advanced Shapeshifting, it's only possible to Shapeshift parts of the body without having a high chance of it being lethal. When you Full-body Shapeshift, it has to be instantaneous, with not even a millisecond before the whole body is transformed. There is also the matter of keeping your brain functioning at optimal levels, seeing as you can't really fit a human brain into a bird head. This is part of what I will teach if you choose Advanced Shapeshifting.

I feel like the other, changing oneself to have the abilities of a Magical creature, won't really make without example, so I'm gonna make one. Let's say this; You have already learned the techniques of Full-body Shapeshifting. You feel confident in your abilities and wanna try turning into a Magical creature. Let's say, you want to try turning into a…. Beholder. From each end of a tentacle, a Beholder can cast a spell. If you simply copy its pattern, you will get a fully functional tentacle, but no magic. To get the magic, you would have to go through a slightly more advanced technique. I will teach it to you if you choose advanced Shapeshifting.

So, what do you say? Will you choose the are of Shapeshifting combat or go more into the advanced techniques of mine?

Make a choice”

After having said that, Metis found a chair and sat down on it, waiting patiently for me to make a decision.

A certain decision that I had a lot of trouble with making.

I don't know what to choose. Both are awesome. Who wouldn't wanna turn one's enemy into a vegetable without even moving a muscle? The brain-dead version of vegetable, of course, and the other one. But… the other is also so cool! I could turn into a massive bird and traverse the skies. I would be able to base jump without a parachute, and survive it! Now that we´re talking about birds, I could actually turn into a Magical bird. I could turn myself into a Thunderbird, and conjure Lightning at will, shocking everything near me to a crisp.

Focus. I need to pick. Combat or Advancement in what I already know. Something new or something I already know something about. What would be the best option?

I think back on my earlier decisions. With my eidetic memory, I go through my thought processes on every decision that I´ve made these last few weeks. What was the driving force between them?

I look through more and more of them. It takes half of them before I begin to see the pattern.

“I don't wanna be a one-trick pony. I need to broaden the aspects of my powers”

And there it was. The driving force in my quest for power. The reason for my choices in the past. I want to be as versatile as possible, always with a trick up my sleeve.

But, what choice would give me the most tricks?

The answer to that was obvious.

I look over at Metis, my face beginning to relax. It had become strained when I began thinking about what to do. Hope it didn't look too stupid.

“I've made a choice”, I told her, my voice as calm as ever.

“Great! Only took you ten minutes for a simple decision. It's better than what it took me, at least. So… What did you choose?”

“My choice is Advanced Shapeshifting”, I answered, confident that I had made the right choice.

“Advanced Shapeshifting, huh? I had guessed you would pick Combat, but, well, who am I to judge? That said, let's go begin your training!”

“First of, I have a question for you. What do you know about Patterns?”, Metis asked, adjusting her position on the wooden floor.

She had shown me into a room, where we now sat on the surprisingly warm, wood floor.

“Patterns are what we are. They represent what we look like physically, and what we are made of. They are brittle, and, with the wrong touch, can collapse upon itself. The Shapeshifting Talent is one of the few that can manipulate these Patterns safely. We, the Shapeshifters, can use our ability to manipulate Patterns to change yourself into stronger beings.

The number of potential Patterns is endless, with thousands being discovered every day. Some Shapeshifters have set it upon themselves to find every variant of Pattern that exists, and while many have been researching for decades, even centuries, none have come close”

I quickly searched my mind for anything else that was relevant. Finding none, I stopped my explanation, hoping it was enough to satisfy her.

“Well, its something at least. Wasn't really expecting much more, but it seems that I've really had my work cut out for me”, Metis said, cracking her knuckles.

“Let's start with the Full-body Shapeshifting. Have ever wondered how Shapeshifters keep their brain intact when they transform? I mean, it would be pretty hard to fit it into a whole brain into an ant. The Pattern of an Ant is simply too small for a full-sized human brain, so how do we Transform into one without having the level of our Mental Faculties decreased? Try to guess, please”

Wracking my brain for answers, I can't seem to find any that would work. I haven't read anything about, so it seemed that I would have to guess.

“Maybe… shrink the brain down to the size of an ant while still having the complexity. Wouldn't that work?”

“Wrong! The Shapeshifters who thought that would work are now all dead. While you can change the size of the brain a small bit, it withstands such a difference in size. It isn't built for it. Any other guesses?”

It takes me three whole seconds to find that I'm blank. Not a single guess. Seeing my nod, Metis continues.

“It wouldn't really make sense for you to have guessed, seeing as it's a little too advanced for anybody to have willing written it down. Try to follow me as I explain okay, cause it won't make sense until you listen carefully.

You can´t decrease the brains size, so what is there to do? Cram it in there, as the regular size? No! That would crush the body, and force you to make way too many changes to it. So, it seems like it's impossible, but trust, when I say it is. You're thinking with the mind of a Beginner Shapeshifter and not a Skilled one.

To have space for the Brain you have to do a technique that can be best described as a Pattern inside the Pattern. The first Pattern, which I will now refer to as the Overlay-Pattern, will have a small… let's call it a gateway to the second Pattern, now referred to as the Support-Pattern.

This Gateway connects the two patterns, making it able to cram more things into the same amount of space. The things inside the Support-Pattern does not increase the mass in any way, making a smaller animal still able to function. But without contributing to the mass, there's almost only one thing you can send to through the Gateway; Neural Signals, or, as I like to call it, Brain Waves.

Using the Support-Pattern, you are now able to Shapeshift your whole body almost safely. Though you still have to learn instantaneous Shapeshift, and that's gonna take some time. Did you get all that?”

Silently nodding at the end, I begin comparing the new information to the older information. Some of it had seemed sketchy then, but now I knew that they were completely false.

Drawing on myself with goat blood for a power boost? How dumb was I during that time?

Dumb. Really dumb.

“So”, I said. “What do we do now? Do I practice Instant-Shapeshifting now, or do you explain something else?”

Metis thinks about it for a moment. Did she not know what she wanted to do today? I hope she takes the other parts seriously at least.

“Nope. I´ve explained quite enough for today, so its time to try out something more… practical”, Metis said, a grin forming on her face.

Why do I suddenly get the urge to run?

“And what would that entail?”, I ask, slowly falling back against the wall.

The smile on her face grows wider.

“You know how I said Master had the ability to change other people´s pattern if they were close enough? Well, think about this; What would the range of a Grandmaster be?”

When I heard those words, I knew it was too late. I closed my eyes, awaiting whatever pain training would come. But… none of the expected pain came. Only a feeling of… weirdness.

I open my eyes and see the world from a new perspective. Everything around me is big, enormous even. Had everything except me grown bigger in an instant? Wait… don't tell me…

Yep, I should have known. Looking down, I see that my feet had turned to those of birds. I flail with my arms, only to realize they had turned into wings.

This is gonna take some time to get used to.

“So, Jack”, I hear Metis, still in human form, say. “Are you ready for the practical training?”