Breathing heavily a worried looking old man stared at me. Glancing this way and that, he looked paranoid. He almost looked crazed, wait had he been pulling in the magic as well? Was he falling into the madness? Pushing him back I scooted the other direction. He is going to lash out at me, he is deranged. Watching him move he reached for me again, forcefully. I smacked his hand away with, a very large tentacle. Larger than it should have been. Looking down I saw three, three tentacles starting from where my wrist would be. Nearly 1.5 meters in length each one moved instinctively. It was almost as if it was always a part of me. Looking back at the old man, he was crouching. A combat stance? Why? The madness, it has him. Eying him I mirrored him.

He spoke, but it was garbled, he was speaking no language I had ever heard before. He took a step, slowly, then another, then another, too close. I lashed out trying to keep him back striking his arm with such force I thought he would be thrown away. He had not, however he pulled on it. Laughing he yanked harder until I hit the ground. Pushing me roughly to the ground his twisted my arm in a very painful direction. So strong, how was he this strong? A cloud of dirt clogged any source of good air to breath, and I began to cough. A mistake, because it only threw more dust into the air making my fit worse. How dare he? How dare he trick me like this? A mentor, all lies.

I would not take this lying down, I would pull more, yes. Push myself further I needed to stay alive I needed to find my brother. Then it dawned on me, this is, this is the madness I have been warned of. Twisting everything I hear and see convincing me that my darkest fears were true. Looking up again, I could see the old man, truly see him. He was hurt, worried, and in a panic. Then I heard his mutterings. “I am sorry, I didn’t think you could. Tarvan forgive me. Please forgive-” He looked at me in turn. “You there?” I nodded. “Oh, thank whoever I need to thank.” Letting me go he embraced me. I could feel his emotions, almost palpable. It was intoxicating, no don’t focus on that. That is a slippery slope. I started to wall them off and focus on the here and now.

“What happened? I thought I was following your instructions. I pulled but found I could pull more. I uh-” I did not know how to convey what happened. It was a bit hazy, and well no words could describe it.

“You did something that you should not be able to do, well yet that is. I am sorry, I had not figured you could do it so I had not warned you. You made magic into mass, instead of slowly inching your way into madness, you flew into the edge of it.”

Confusion, still having a hard time thinking. Images and almost two different realities existed. Once where I was being hugged, then released to be examined. The other was me being strangled and looking into the eyes of a predator. “Sorry, the edge of what?”

“Madness. Girl, the edge of madness. Quick, release the stored power. You must or you shall keep fighting it. It is easier to getting it to its normal size than forming it. It will be easy. You must hurry, I will explain further soon after.”

Nodding I began to concentrate, trying to reset myself. I could not find it. I could not find inner peace, I started breathing fast. Then faster, what if I can't ever go back? What if I will forever be fighting the madness? I would have to leave. Would I then become a Twisted? A being bent on destruction and killing? Unable to find solace in anything? I started weeping, will I no longer have the chance to find my brother?

A smack, so strong my ears rang. It took me moments to recover before I saw the old man again. “Girl, focus. Let everything else go away, don’t worry about a perfect meditation state. Just focus on the power. You are connected to it; you are in control. Now focus.”

That made sense, he did say that meditations was not the key to Transmutation, it was most useful to return to my original being. Nodding I focused. Keeping my eyes open this time I stared at me are. There, I see lines of many different colors nearly blinding now that I focused on it. I started tearing them out, not physically of course but I don’t know how to describe it. I was tearing them out though. Yanking and pulling, I cleared a way for my arm to go to its original mass. They were still tentacles there and the hand was misshapen, but it was not as massive. Losing a meter in size on each tentacle, they looked childish. Better, I stopped seeing double images of what was, and what wasn’t. Breathing under control, wiping my face I looked up at the old man, not my teacher, my mentor. “Thank you, I-” I cried, not just a tear or two, no I cried rocking back and forth snot running. I was a disgusting mess, and I knew it.

I was hugged again. “Child, understand this, you are strong. You just have not realized it yet. You felt the madness where many would not return from, the edge of it for sure but you felt it. It is fine, we are here.” Looking over behind the old man I saw the steward. He was Different though, his ears elongated, eyes a deep purple. He had fangs, claws on his hands. Most notably, he was all a dark green. There were other things of note, but I couldn't get a good visual on it. His legs looked a little misshapen under his baggy pants. Odd, he usually wears form fitted things.

“Wayward, we must go. We can fix her hand another time. The amount of magic she had in her control will draw the others.” The voice of the steward was also changed. Usually he has a clean, normal pitched tone. Now however, it was raspy, deep and sharp.

“Yes, you are right.” Picking me up the old man sprinted away. Such speeds, he looked as though he had no alterations to himself and yet he was able to run as fast as a horse, no faster. Jumping over obstacles with ease he was pursued by the steward. While the old man focused on what was in front of him, the steward watched for what lay behind them. Nearly at the edge of the boundary is when I was thrown. Flying through the air I saw critters the size of a small dog appears.

Landing very hard I rolled to a stop to find my two teachers battling it out with dozens of, what used to be I don't know. Some had six legs, some walking on two and others four. Fangs, claws, tentacles weird appendages of all types lashed out to the two. The two were a whirlwind of daggers and claws. The old man pulled knives out of nowhere and was using them expertly. He kicked a creature as it jumped at him and slashed at another. Looking my way, he threw one of the knives my way hitting another creature behind me that I had not noticed. “Run! Go!” I did not need further prompting, I ran.

Running as fast as my legs could take me, I looked behind to see a slaughter. The two were massacring everything in sight. Looking at my hand I grimaced. It looked monstrous, when I was forming it, I wanted something to be a little more elegant, but I got this grotesque looking thing. Many darker colors with underlying mucus that was green made it look sickly. Looking back at the trail I had to run I sped up, I will see them back at our home.

The view of our training home came into view, so close, push, faster, go! Meters away and then pain erupts.