As the itching began to subside, Niko finally took Dachna up on his offer to look in the mirror. For several long seconds, he stared, incomprehensive of what he was seeing looking back at him.

“I… Wow. This is different.” Niko uttered softly amidst the silence in the room. The other Wyldwalkers might have been looking on in interest, but through his mental connection to Skye, he could feel a radiating sort of concern from her. She was worried, perhaps, that he might not appreciate all of the changes that his body had undergone.

The first thing Niko noticed were that his eyes gleamed with a brighter topaz color, different in a not-so-subtle way from the amber they had been. Additionally, he almost felt like they had an inner light to them, but he wasn’t certain if that was just his imagination or not. Beyond that, Niko flexed his wings – actual wings, that sprouted wholly from his back – and looked at them in the mirror, transfixed by the colors. Whereas his body had been more or less equal parts sapphire, garnet, and amethyst in color, there was now a predominant sort of icy blue, at the base of much of his feathers. They turned into the familiar sapphire for the bulk of the feathers, but a silvery sheen edged each one, as though with a silver filigree. His wings, on the other hand, had many more large spots of deep garnet, and ruby, with streaks and spots of the colors in patterns that he found mesmerizing to look at.

His beak, too, had changed, not so much in color, but instead in form. It had a ridge along the front, not dissimilar to what he could call an axe-head, but with a bearded point that would allow him to still peck at things without issue. His crown of feathers was now full, rich, and extended back and down his neck with highlights of amethyst rising forth from the same frost-bitten sapphire feathers that much of the rest of his body now had. Flecks of amethyst interspersed the sapphire on his front, which was a mixture of almost downy feathers and more developed, rigid ones. They looked soft, but Niko could feel how much essence his hide now carried within it. Of all the creatures he’d fought, he thought his feathers might actually be greater armor than most anything he’d had to attack before.

In spite of losing the sheer color explosion he’d had before, Niko had to say that the look was an improvement. Highlights of amethyst along his body, with garnet and ruby on his wings and tail feathers. The frosty-sapphire look gave him a regal countenance, severe, but somehow still soft thanks to the breakup in his color profile. He’d been incredibly worried about what might happen to his feathers, but Niko had to say that his worries had been unfounded.

His overall body, on the other hand, was undoubtedly the source of Skye’s concern.

Before, he’d been bipedal, with his wings built into his velociraptor-like arms. Now, however, it was completely different. While he’d been initially transfixed by the set of wings on his back, he had now come to realize that he was no longer bipedal at all. He was quadrupedal, with four legs, albeit his front ones felt as if they had a much greater grasping and prehensile ability than his back talons. They were thicker, far more powerfully built than a creature of flight ought to use, with feathers racing down their bulk, save for the armored scales that covered his ‘hands’ and feet. Whether or not his front taloned appendages could be called hands and not feet, Niko didn’t know.

Almost as if seeing his new form was a trigger, he felt his new limbs far more clearly. He was overall larger than his previous form, but wasn’t actually taller. He was now an Az-Phorus, though he hadn’t been very clear on what that would entail. Niko felt like this was far too dramatic of a shift than what it should have been, though.

“I’m going to need to get my packs refitted.” Niko gave a mild chuckle, before looking down at himself, “I kind of look like a Griffon, don’t I?”

Niko could practically feel his humanoid companions relax as he made the joke, and he found himself touched by their concern. Dachna spouted, “More like a big chicken with four legs. Does that mean you’ve got four drumsticks now?”

The Az-Phorus was about to caw at him when a ‘thunk’ noise reverberated through the room, with Dachna hissing playfully at Mithel who gave him a mildly suffering grin. She then followed up by answering Niko, “Yeah, a bit. No lion parts, though.”

“Griffons don’t have lion parts, though?” Skye blinked in confusion, before frowning, “Right?” She looked at Stella who hummed aloud, before her cousin shrugged.

“How are you feeling?” Ronald asked, “I’ll bet that’s… quite the paradigm shift for you.”

Slowly, Niko nodded, before trying to rise up on his unsteady legs. The addition of his wings felt… bizarre, yet he found that his body was rapidly able to compensate. He knew instinctively how to use them, but that didn’t mean he could really use them yet. He also felt quite a bit heavier than he’d been before, leaving him uncertain that he could actually fly in the first place. His wings had an odd sense of power, though, even discounting the fact that his newest essence pattern was augmenting them further.

Niko twisted his neck around, noting that while he could do so, it was slightly less prehensile than it’d been before. In return, though, he felt his musculature was significantly more powerful, and that his Sharp Strike pattern had grown in a qualitative way. Even in spite of a knee-jerk uncertainty to the changes he’d undergone, he was enthusiastic about testing everything out soon.

Niko then moved his gaze down his body, settling first on his broad back, and then down further to his rear. A long, thick fan of feathers trailed behind him, and he twitched far more developed muscles there and felt them flare out slightly. He breathed a sigh of relief when they didn’t go so far as a peacock would as he had always found them to be rather desperate for attention. He certainly didn’t need to flaunt himself before the masses to get their attention.

“Still a pretty bird,” Niko nodded to himself, pretending not to notice the way in which the rest of his team shook their heads in amused resignation at the assessment.

“Do you think you can actually fly?” Skye asked, “Az-Phorus… aren’t even supposed to have wings. Is this one of your special deals?”

Niko pondered that for a few long seconds, before nodding with equal speed, “I think so? It feels like it was a little bonus, or something?”

“Ah, I forget that you’re an aberrant,” Sasha nodded to herself, “I’ve only ever met one before you, and it’s hard to picture you as one of them.”

Niko gave a light trill of confirmation, but suspected that his aberrant status was only a part of it. Given that Venris’ blessing was fully absorbed into himself at this point, that might well have been the cause for the variance. If his wings worked though… He wouldn’t complain. Flight was something he’d been fascinated by ever since he’d started to glide. His wings were somewhat short, but there were plenty of creatures that flew with shorter wingspans relative to their bodies. Whether or not his weight would allow it was the real question.

“Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out if the wings work. Do you guys have a training yard?”

-----------------------------------

Niko stood on an upraised platform, void of any of his belongings aside from a scarf of sorts that he wore around his neck, denoting his affiliation with the Wyldwalkers. They were having badges made, and would have other bands for Sasha, Thokk, and Charlotte, along with a complete refitting of Niko’s gear. Thokk and Sasha didn’t need any such thing, given that their overall bodies hadn’t really changed all that much, and Charlotte could – and happily did – just make her own woven equipment to carry anything she needed to. He was surprised to see that her front limbs were far more flexible than he’d thought they were, and she could actually reach around to her back if she angled herself right.

‘And I’m distracting myself, again,’ Niko took a deep breath, trying not to drag his attention to where the rest of the Wyldwalkers were testing their own abilities. He hadn’t been the only one to try to create a pattern upon tiering up, as with the humanoid races it was very common to do so. The reason as to why was simple; they didn’t typically pass into unconsciousness during their tier ups like beasts did. It was odd though that Niko had been able to forge his pattern at all, given the extent of his physical transformation, but he wasn’t going to try to guess as to why that might be.

Without delaying further, Niko stretched his wings and flapped hard, conjuring up the limited memories he had of when he was a chickling Red Hawk. He’d never really gotten the chance to learn how to fly, but instinct and memories were there, buried under all of the layers. With incredible exertion, he lifted himself off the ground, buffeting winds whipping around him briefly as he took off.

And promptly overbalanced to one side and slapped back down onto the platform.

The noise was loud enough that everyone stopped what they were doing and snuck a glance at Niko’s progress. Niko grumbled to himself, before cawing at them, “This is pecking hard!”

Sasha laughed, “You’ve never flown before, yes?”

“No.” He shook his head, a touch petulantly.

“As far as I’m aware, that means you need to practice.” She said in a perfectly even tone of voice, but he could tell by the dancing mirth in her eyes that she was teasing him.

“Har har,” Niko shook his wings out and continued sarcastically, “I would never have guessed as much.”

“She’s right, though,” Ronald called out, ducking under a surprise attack from Skye, “Don’t be too hard on your—self!” He ducked under another long strike from Stella, behind him, using a wooden quarterstaff.

Niko watched them with amusement but was also quite impressed. Ronald was dodging attacks he couldn’t see coming, though he knew it was because of his newest pattern. A coating of armor flared into existence as attacks neared him, yet he didn’t readily take blows upon the plate-like formations. The armor faded in and out of existence with a warm, white glow, but to Niko’s Aether Sight, he saw the full ensemble embracing the big man's body. Somehow, it reacted only when attacks were coming, strengthening and notifying him of where they were coming from. He’d described it as responding to force itself, an impressive defensive power that also happened to tell Ronald where attacks were coming from even if he himself didn’t perceive it.

Skye huffed in annoyance, “I really want to hit you. Can I start increasing in power?”

“Sure, just be sure to take it s—”

Ronald’s next words were cut off as Skye’s limbs became encased in pale wood, with stiff vines running up her limbs and sections of ridged bark appearing over any vulnerable parts of her body. It didn’t fully cover her, but Niko understood that she wasn’t fully powering her Wyldform pattern, which had only grown in power with her recent tier up. Suddenly, Ronald was no longer able to merely dodge Skye’s much quicker strikes, but he’d never fully relied on only dodging attacks in the first place. He angled himself with each attack, forcing each punch and swipe to graze and deflect off of his armor. Stella fell into a rhythm with Skye, forcing him to adjust to both of them.

Surprisingly, he took several blows head on, yet none of them seemed to deal all that much damage, if any. As he watched, Niko realized that Ronald was testing the power of each strike, and was stepping into strikes intentionally. Many of the attacks were taken before they could reach the height of their blow, and those that were in full swing tended to be dodged, parried, or forced to a glancing blow. As he worked, Ronald’s armor flexed and shifted, changing form slightly to improve itself against the attack types that were in play.

At least, until Stella’s eyes glowed an ethereal blue color and a spiraling sheath of glyphs appeared on her quarterstaff. A strike that should have been weak, and thereby one that Ronald was happy to take on his armor, was suddenly much faster and stronger than it ought to have been. Ronald grunted as he was knocked forwards from behind, his armor flexing to take the blow, but flashing a bright white from the strike. Skye took the advantage and swiped low, sweeping Ronald off of his feet with her attack.

“Damn,” Skye uttered, stretching her legs as she stood, “That armor is no joke.” She then gave Stella a wide grin and a thumbs up, “Good shot!”

“Thanks,” She said, helping a laughing Ronald to his feet, “Did that do much damage? I was trying to empart concussive force onto the staff.”

The big man shook himself out, “Yeah, that was good. My armor had to adjust suddenly, so I couldn’t empower it enough to also block Skye’s hit.”

Niko drew his attention away, regarding his wings again even as he pondered the new ability that Ronald had shown. It was partly reactive armor, but he could make it cover more of himself with more essence. By what Niko could see with his vision, though, it was an essence hog when it needed to cover him more densely. Better still to dodge and deflect than to take a blow head on.

That said, he’d never have another sneak attack moment like what had happened with the Memory Thief. None of them said anything about it, but he had to imagine that was a driving impetus behind the creation of Ronald’s latest pattern.

“Alright, let's try again.” Niko breathed deeply, and before he could get anxious, flapped hard, this time taking his wings up and bringing them down and inwards hard. At the same time, he bent his legs and jumped upwards and forwards, knowing that he was going to fall off of the platform if he failed this time.

For a feather-raising moment, Niko felt the free fall kick in, and almost froze up, even knowing he wouldn’t be harmed at all from a fall of this height. His instincts took over, wings pumping once more, and suddenly Niko was much farther in the air than he had been earlier. He flapped again, automatically, and almost imbalanced to one side as he tried to overcorrect.

With a forced calm, Niko didn’t try to simply hover in place, instead moving forward in a straight, albeit thankfully slow, line. Even in spite of himself, he trilled out joyously, “It-It’s working! Haha! Holy cluck!”

The training yard they were in was outside, albeit still in the compound proper and having plenty of room and privacy. He flapped hard, feeling his muscles adjusting and his control shifting. Niko was pushing too hard, making too many exaggerated motions. That wouldn’t be fixed overnight, but he was already beginning to see positive changes. His sweeping motions were too wide, too lateral. Niko focused on his movements, before trying to turn with his wing motions. It was horribly ineffective trying to turn just using his wings, though. Yet, he had plenty of examples of how birds flew just by watching them, and beyond that, having glided himself, he already knew the best way to handle that.

He banked his body, allowing his wings to stretch out and flap less often. Instead of rising further, he slowed down how often he flapped, instead letting the air buoy himself upwards. He was very heavy, but somehow his essence enriched feathers gave him the ability to fly even in spite of being built like a tank. Not that he wasn’t exerting himself—these were muscle groups he’d never used—but it wasn’t nearly as bad as he’d thought. Another dip of his body, and he brought himself down lower to the ground, carefully angling himself as he flew in a wide circle around the training grounds. Niko saw the others looking at him, and likewise noticed as Dachna and Mithel clapped.

The sentiment was only mildly marred by Dachna calling out, “Good job, Drumstick!”

Still, Niko felt ecstatic, a rush of adrenaline and joy at being able to finally fly. Even if Az-Phorus weren’t supposed to have wings, well, Niko couldn’t say he was disappointed!

“Alright, I’m going to try my new pattern! Uh… Over there!” Niko cried out loudly to inform the others, before moving over to a small pond of water where he could possibly fall and not cause anyone harm. Or in the event that his pattern did strange things, it would… hopefully be alright.

With adrenaline still going, Niko felt his much more potent tier three essence surge through his body, touching on his brand new wing and tail feather pattern. He knew what he wanted out of it when he’d made it, but Niko wasn’t absolutely certain that it would work. There was always the chance that his understanding and intent just couldn’t bridge the gap, but he had hopes that it would work out.

‘Let’s start with something simple,’ Niko thought to himself, before activating Particle Wing.

The essence activated, and his intent for this part of the pattern, as complex as it was, began to manifest beneath his wings, where he wanted it to be. Heat bloomed beneath him, and Niko involuntarily squawked in surprise as the sudden updraft carried him up another several meters. Before it could get too out of hand, he dialed back on the amount of power he was using, the heat falling to just a trickle. Niko couldn’t help the huge grin that spread on his face. With some essence, he’d be more than capable of augmenting his flight. During the trance, he had no idea if his wings could actually carry him, but since they actually could, this was just a nice bonus, rather than an absolute requirement.

‘Alright, now… Part two.’ He gathered essence, before activating Particle Wing once more. This time, he projected the attack out, superheated air suddenly bloomed in front of him in a cone. Instantly, it looked almost like a shower of sparks and embers shot down at the water below, sending a rush of steam upwards. Niko avoided the steam, both in case it was plenty hot enough to harm him, and also so he didn’t get carried away by the updraft.

Still, that was proof of concept. It worked! But the area was a little too large… Niko cycled more essence, this time focusing on concentrating the blast. He aimed at the middle of the pool and with a particularly large beat of his wings, which was totally necessary and not for dramatic display, he let loose with his heated Particle Wing.

A bolt of fire blasted down, roaring as it did so. It was at least the size of a man, and when it hit the water, the essence-flame smashed into the surface, sending up a much larger plume of steam. The explosion lit up in Niko’s Aether Sight, showing that the essence was directly emparting heat, and molecular motion, to its target.

Then, Niko did the inverse, sending down a larger, continuous stream of essence. The steam froze midair, turning into snow, and the water below turned into ice, bubbles trapped in the moment they’d formed from the temperature shock.

“Hah! It works!” Niko trilled out, “I’m the best!”

“How about you come on down and tell us what that was all about!?” Skye called up to him, looking at him with a wide smile, “If you can land, anyways!”

Niko scoffed at that, “I’ve been gliding plenty, I know how to land!”

He moved downwards, banking gently and letting his wings only do slight beats to keep the decline steady and not break-neck. On a whim, he angled to land on his ice-rink, readying his talons to scrap into the ice and let him slide, nice and easy, to the edge of the pool.

Niko hit the ice at just the right angle as he came in, pleased as punch. And slid all of two meters before it started to crack, and his leg punched through the not-quite-frozen pond.

A minute later, a drenched, cold, and annoyed Az-Phorus climbed out of the water to the laughter of his friends. Niko shook himself out, happily dousing Dachna with the bulk of the moisture.

The roguish man still grinned and laughed uncontrollably, unaffected in the slightest by the water. Niko gave a half-hearted hiss at him, before flaring his Particle Wing pattern and drying himself out very carefully.

“Well, that was… a landing.” Skye kept a straight face now, but her connection to Niko betrayed the laughter in her soul.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Niko huffed, “Anyways, it works, so… It’s fine.”

“How are you doing all that?” Mithel asked, and Niko knew that he could tell her what it actually was, being that she was from Earth and had an idea of scientific principles. The others, though, wouldn’t understand.

So, Niko shrugged, guessing that Mithel could read between the lines, “I’m just having the world move in specific ways.”

Mithel nodded in understanding, as did the others. Though, for them, it was likely ‘because aberrant logic’ rather than actually knowing what was happening.

“So, what about the rest of you? What did you… get?” Niko paused, sensing several essence signatures moving fast through the halls of the Blue-Claw Clan’s complex. He frowned, “I think something’s wrong.”

Before anyone could ask what was going on, Ottowan opened the door to the courtyard, and called out to them, “Excuse the interruption, but the Matriarch is calling everyone, guests included, to the main hall.”

The Wyldwalkers exchanged worried glances but didn’t ask questions. That was most definitely not a good sign. Niko had hoped that he would get more practice before anything happened, but he supposed the pilgrimage waited for no one…