When an egg is laid, the person who is destined to be their Bonded feels it, or so it is said. Although the person usually doesn't realize it or so claimed Shifters that looked back upon their human lives.

There were two main reasons that I wanted to become a Shifter so bad, one that I've already addressed was so that I could escape my crippled body and be free. It is actually unclear in the lore about whether a cripple would be healed just when they Shift or if their human body would change too. No cripple had ever been chosen before, but that may have been because my cripples were not kept. I wouldn't mind either scenario as long as I could be free at least some of the time. The second reason I wanted to Shift was so that I could take care of my family. Most Shifters and their dragons worked with the government usually in the army or as couriers or other fields like that. Since Dragons are so much rarer than the purely human populace, they get paid a lot of money. If I could shift me and my brothers could live a life of the utmost comfort if we so chose.

The months passed, about once every 3 or 4 months we'd get summoned to the square and witness another Shift.

Our country was one of the strongest it the world, it was called Rylaria, we held power over the others because although we were one of the smallest countries, we had the highest percentage of dragons. We also had a sophisticated system to know which village to transport soon to hatch eggs to. Other countries did not know our secret that was so classified it is said that only the Ryler and a select few of the Den'aty knew it.

One of our neighboring countries was Karvoltin. For the past 50 years or so we had enjoyed peace with them, under our current Ryler's father's reign. Recently their Karvolt (their ruler) had died and been replaced by his spoiled brat of a son, Riert. Riert, Oops I mean, the Karvolt, had a problem with our country. Our Ryler's father and his father had been good friends and as a child he had played with our current Ryler. As the story goes there was some kind of conflict and the two young heirs began a long and bitter feud that had just come to head with Kiert's inheritance of the throne.

The chimes started to ring and much faster and less musical pace them usual. The noise gave me an unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach and unconsciously I knew that I should hurry to the town square.

When I arrived I was greeted by the sight of the Ryler dressed in plain dark red robes, rather than his elaborate ceremonial ones. He was surrounded by many more body guards than usual, and there wasn't a single egg or Den'aty in sight. Although several dragons with their Bonded in human form on their back were perched on nearby buildings. Shifters usually publicly appeared in human form on their Bonded's back, they usually only shifted for long distance traveling, battle or training.

As soon as the entire town had gathered, the Ryler hollowly announced, Karvoltin has declared war, they ambushed and killed our best fleet of dragons while on a training run. The crowd dissolved in chaos.

Two of the guards flanking the Ryler looked at each other and nodded them then both stepped forward together and blew their trumpets extremely loudly. The crowd quieted down. The Ryler solemnly looked out at the crowd.
"I will need every able-bodied man between the ages of 16 and 25 to report to the palace and 6PM tonight"

The entire crowd gasped and a hush settled over the crowd, slowly growing to a murmuring and eventually an outpouring of feeling. That was the moment when I realized that Tazore would be could among the ranks of those men. I knew that they were being brought to the palace to be told that they were going to have to join the army.

That night the dinner table was silent, it was just me and Devirn, as Tazore was at the meeting. We both knew that something would have to change. We couldn't just live on what Devirn made. Tazore would be paid for being in the army, but it wouldn't be enough. Devirn and I should have been adopted into a different family, but Tazore insisted on keeping us. He knew that no family would want to adopt a cripple and he felt a sense of duty that required him to keep us together.

Late that night Tazore returned home. Devirn was asleep, so we talked in the kitchen.

"We have to come up with a plan." Tazore exclaimed angrily

"Like what? There aren't any good options." I stated mildly

"Well you can't just sit here waiting to starve!" He started to pace the small room.

"Look, we'll find a way, we always do. You salary plus Devirn's may be enough to get buy. I will try even harder to find some odd jobs. I haven't tried to get a job in the other neighborhoods yet.

He stopped pacing and looked at me thoughtfully. "Maybe you could go to the palace tomorrow. They might have a job for you as a cook or something."

"Right," I snorted, "As if they would want a cripple around the royals."

"Well it's better than not trying at all!" He snarled.

The next morning, despite our argument I headed over to the palace as Tazore requested. As I drew closer I became aware of the increasing amount of stares my wheelchair was attracting. The houses near the palace were only Assigned to special people that the court wanted to keep close by. As I moved farther down the street the massive structure came into view. It was huge; there were grand court yards, massive towers, and ornate statues everywhere. When I approached the gates the guard looked at me with disapproval. Head held high I informed them I requested and audience with the head cook. The guard who appeared to be in charge gestured for one of his men to go in and check.

A few minutes later he returned and escorted me inside. The interior was even more fabulous that the exterior. I had never been in the palace before, and every other place I'd been was massively over shadowed by the grandeur of this place.

Once we got back to the kitchens I was cordially greeted by a tall robust man, whom I assumed to be the head cook.

"So," He said, "Tell me about your cooking experiences."

"Well," I started, "In my free time I enjoy cooking. I cook my two brothers 3 meals every day, and I'd like to think I do a pretty good job. I've never actually had a job cooking, but I'm a fast learner and I really do enjoy it."

He shifted uncomfortably, "I'm sorry but we actually don't have any positions open right now..."

"Are there any other tasks that need to be done in this castle that I would be able to do?"

"Not that I know of."

Just then, a small boy, probably a messenger, can running in and whispered in the man's ear.

"Actually we may have something for you, please follow this boy."

He led me through a maze of twists and turns that I knew I would never be able to find my way back through on my own. Finally we reached a large, innocent looking door. The boy stepped forward and quietly knocked 3 times. To my shock the door was opened by a young woman wearing the robes of the Den'aty.

Stunned and speechless I stood in the doorway. Smiling serenely she gestured for me to come in. The woman was quite young and almost other worldly in her beauty. She had white blond hair, flowing in smooth waves to her waist. She wore simple dark green robes, but they were obviously very expensive and good quality. I slowly rolled in, trying to take in my surroundings without being too obvious. The room was much cozier than the rest of the palace; if I hadn't walked through the palace to get there I would have said that it was a separate building all together. The room was painted in soft colors, and it had neat simplistic furniture. In the center of the room there was a table; on each side was a chair. As I rolled in a young man in similar robes to the woman's came and took one of the chairs away. She seated herself in the chair opposite me.

"Do you know why you are here?" She asked in a soft lilting voice,

I fidgeted nervously, "Should I?"

She chuckled, "Perhaps."

She then gracefully stood up and walked out one of the many door connected to the room.

I sat at that table awkwardly fidgeting, wondering if I had been dismissed or what the heck was going on. I wanted to leave but I'd promised I'd look into a job and we really needed the money. After sitting there for probably 20 minutes, I head soft padding footsteps.

In walked a barefoot boy of about 6 or 7 He looked up at me with sweet brown eyes. He, like the woman, had an unnerving otherworldly quality about him. I smiled kindly at him.

"Hi, what's your name?" I asked.

He grinned, closed his eyes and grimaced. Before my eyes he grew to many times his normal size, and his skin turned a purple-blue. The dim light in the room intensified and started glint off his scales. His jaw expanded and his face elongated. Finally after what seemed like forever, even though it was probably less than 30 seconds, a dragon with large brown eyes gazed down at me just like the child had.

"Uh-uh" I stuttered.

What the heck, I wondered; no kids had ever been shifters before.

My mind was utterly blown. If I had not already been seated in my wheelchair, I probably would have fallen over if you hit me with a feather. It was common knowledge that kids were never shifters. Both their bodies and minds were not mature enough to handle it. Yet, here I was, with a child Shifted in front of me.

The child Shifters' nose was so close to me I could feel his warm breath blowing on my face. I knew I should be terrified, he was just a child he could easily lose control and kill me. But I wasn't afraid I calmly looked into his eyes and stared him down defiantly against my better judgment.

Slowly, I whispered to the child, "Why am I here?"

At that moment I felt a gut-wrenching pain, right above my left shoulder blade. The searing pain slowly spread, enveloping my whole body. I could barely even squeak out a cry of pain because of the intensity. I doubled over, grasping my shoulder in pain, only to gasp as I made it worse. It felt like my entire body was being turned inside out. Slowly the pain receded, concentrating in a barely noticeable ball above my left shoulder blade.

Finally composing myself I looked up just in time to see a little boy scampering back where he came from.

I hesitantly reached for my left shoulder, gingerly touching it, not wanting to cause myself anymore pain. When none came, I carefully pulled my shirt down off one shoulder. Craning my neck I tried to see if a mark had been left. Sure enough there was. It was fairly large, covering from about midway up the left side of my back to a couple inches below my left shoulder. It was roughly oval in shape, it looked like a tattoo of sorts but seemed almost like an illusion, as if it wasn't quite real. When I touched it though, it was slightly raised.

The predominant color was black; it had a few streaks of red mixed in too. It swirled and spiraled and had strange markings in what looked like it could be a language, but not like any I'd ever seen. Slowly I pulled my shirt back into place.

My whole body still felt weird and tingly I shook my head trying to clear my mind and decided to ignore it.

Looking around the room I slowly rolled towards the door that the Den'aty lady and the little boy had disappeared through.

At this point I was fuming, but I was also terrified. This was all getting too weird for me. I fought the urge to flee as fast as I could. My whole life I'd been a coward never standing up for myself or anything else, essentially letting people use me as a doormat. I'd let my disability goad me into believing I was less than them, maybe I was, but in this moment I let the anger consume me as I knew it was the only way I could do what I had to do.

I was going to find out what the hell was going on here.

Taking a deep breath and affirming to myself that I could do this I slowly rolled through the door, I then rolled down a long hallway. At the end there was a door. It was a regular, nondescript door, but it felt like a scary door a door that you don't want to open.

So what did I do?

I opened the door.

It was just a room, an ordinary room, the walls were painted a serene off white, and there was more simplistic furniture and several more doors. I rolled up to the table in the room. On it was a neatly folded set of the simplistic dark green robes I'd seen the woman wearing. Next to it was what looked like bizarre battle armor and finally weapons a huge assortment of weapons from swords, to spear, to bows, to weapons I had never seen before and had no name for.

I sat there for a minute, why would this place that was full of Den'aty have weapons. The Den'aty are peaceful care takers for the dragons.

The door to my left opened, the same woman came back in. She gracefully sat across from me and looked at me slowly appraising me. Our eyes locked. Startled she broke the eye contact and stood up fast. She hesitantly walked around the table towards me.

My body tensed, not knowing what to expect. Her hand reached towards my shoulder and she pulled in down. Puzzled she stood there examining the mark. Nervously I fidgeted with the side of my chair waiting for her to say something. I could obviously tell she knew something about the mark from the way she was intently studying it, as if waiting for it to speak to her.

"Well. This is rather interesting." She said as she walked back around to her seat.

"Um…" I scrambled for something to say, all of my previous anger fading away being replaced with speechlessness for no apparent reason. "Why… how… what?" I started unable to form the right questions.

She smiled in a way that was both mysterious and deeply irritating at the same time.

"You are a Den'aty" she said simply.

"How? Why am I a Den'aty, what does you mean?"

"When you were Branded your entire body went through a transformation, you are now not the same girl you were when you entered here." She produced a small mirror from a pocket deep in her robe, she extended it to me "Here, you even look different."

I took the mirror and examined my face, a rare luxury, as most people did not own mirrors and I'd mostly seen my reflection in water.

It was true.

The first thing I noticed were my eyes, they looked mostly normal but as I looked I noticed startling veins of black and red, just like my Brand. I looked at the woman across me and studied her eyes, how could I have not noticed them? They were blue, a fairly normal not head turning blue, but inside there were darker blue swirls and white streaks. Looking back in the mirror I noticed other differences, they were very minimal and hard to individually distinguish, a slight sharpening of a feature here and angle change of a feature there. It was hard to pinpoint but in the end created a minimal effect of somewhat other worldliness, of being not quite human. I set the mirror down.

"Just what is going on here?" I fumed, about to lose it, "How can this happen? What are you doing to me!"

"Zaringa," She started serenely, "calm down, I know you have lots of questions, and they all will be answered, I promise. But for now we need to focus on what needs to be done."

Strangely I felt a little bit calmer and got it back together.

Hesitantly I looked back at her, "What do you mean? What happens now?"

"Training."

What the hell I wondered, what is going on?

Suddenly my mind cleared, remembering the whole reason I'd come here in the first place, "What about a job? My brothers and I desperately need the money."

"Don't worry about that, everything will be taken care of." She then stood up "Come," she said and walked away without as much as a backward glance.

Dutifully I followed her, more out of curiosity than anything else. We weaved in and out of various doors and passage ways. By this point I was so hopelessly lost and turned around I knew I would never find my way out on my own. I also knew we weren't in the castle anymore, we'd travelled too far away, the original room I'd been in had been on the edge of the castle. We'd passed that a long time ago.

Finally after what seemed like hours, although I knew it was only a few minutes, we arrived in a huge room.

A huge empty room.

In my entire life time I'd never been in such a large room. I grew up in a small house and the largest room I'd ever been in was the entrance hall of the palace. This room paled by comparison.

She gestured me over to a large empty area in the middle of the floor as we passed in took in the surrounding sights.

I supposed this must be the training area. Most of the equipment I'd never seen before, but I did notice the alarming amount of weapons strewn across the room. I recognized what looked like a target area for shooting bows and crossbows, an area clearly for weight lifting, dummies with markings on body parts next to large baskets of swords, spears, axes and the like. We also passed other things that I had no name for and could not discern what their use was.

When we stopped she looked at me and produced the bizarre battle armor I'd seen on table.

Briefly I wondered how she'd carried it and picked it up without my noticing, but the thought was dismissed.

"Here put this on," she said handing me the pile. It was really heavy. doubtfully I looked down at it, how am I supposed to get this on and will it fit? It looked really weird.

Looking up I saw the lady donning her own set of battle gear, hers in a royal blue and white theme, while mine black and red. I copied her, pulling on the pants first, followed by the boots, then the various chest pieces layered in a particularly way, Followed by the helmet. Her's was spiked, mostly on the helmet, it was weird, I'd never seen such serene colors look so sinister. Mine was designed in a way to emulate the scaling of dragons. While from a distance it was not as noticeable, up close it produced a fearsome, elegant sight.

When everything was on I stood there awkwardly looking at her. My gear didn't quite fit right, and it was so heavy I was almost a little bit hunched over, it was awkwardly bulging in some places and falling off in others.

We locked eyes, "Now we test your abilities, I hope you're ready." She said simply

I was not prepared for what happened next.

Holy crap.

My mouth hung open in shock as I stared at the sight in front of me, she was magnificent. She had several inches and her body had changed shape. It was much thicker and more muscled , and yet still appeared strangely lithe.

Besides that though the most shocking thing that made her most obviously otherworldly was her eyes. Whereas before they were a light blue, they were now completely taken over by swirls of the dark blue and white that where just flecks before.

It was completely and totally creepy and to be honest I was terrified.

The next thing that struck me were her hands, at first they looked like normal human hands, maybe slightly larger and the tendons were bulging out. Then she flexed her hands and extended viciously curved talons. They were almost as terrifying as the claws I'd seen a couple times on some naturals.

They looked like she could easy tear me in half with one swipe from them. Heck, she could probably destroy a dragon with those things.

Her face was also different, it had all of the minor changes I'd seen in my face multiplied by a hundred. It made a fearsomely beautiful, yet haunting sight. Her face was chiseled to a degree that I felt as if I could cut myself on it.

Her alien face twisted strangely as her lips curved up into a smirk as I stared at her with a dumb and shocked look on my face.

I stared into her blue and white swirled eyes, she stared back, silently challenging me.

"Your turn." She said simply, staring me down as if trying to figure out what I was really made of.

I didn't move, I just stared at her. I was still in shock, literally unable to move my body. She waited patiently; I suppose she's gone through things like this before. Slowly I came out of it and tried to form a cohesive sentence.

"Um… ah…how?" was all I could manage. I was still trying to figure out this was possible and if it was how the heck did she expect me to do it.

"Just try, it will come." She said calmly, casually inspecting her talons as if she had all the time in the world.

So I did, I clenched all my muscles and tried to rip out of my body.

No luck, I just felt ridiculous.

I calmed down and tried to find a deep inner place in my mind like I'd read in silly book one time.

Which, of course involved more tight clenching.

Nope, I just ended up with a headache.

After a few more fruitless tries I was ready to throw one of those stupid swords at her head.

Trying to get in control of my anger and annoyance, I just glared at her with my arms crossed like a child.

She smirked back and me.

"Well?" she asked, "aren't you ready yet? It's not really that hard." She had this annoyingly smug look on her face.

Suddenly she sighed, the smiled slightly.

"I guess were gonna have to do this the hard way."

She walked to her left and grabbed two swords from a basket. They were obviously for one-handed use, but look fairly heavy and razor sharp.

"Here," she said thrusting a sword into my hand, "let's fight."

It was incredibly heavy; I thought I was pretty strong from having to do everything with just my arms, but apparently not.

"This is ridiculous," I protested, "I am in this chair and you are… like that… it's completely unfair."

"So, who said anything about fair?"

She stepped back.

"Get ready… Go!"

She disappeared. I looked around trying to spot her.

I felt a voice whisper in my ear, "I'm over here."

I turned as fast as I could, pushing a wheel with one hand while awkwardly hoisting the sword in the air with my other ready to do… well something. The armor got in the way slowing my turn and making it even harder to hold the sword up.

No one was there. I felt the flat of her blade smack me on the head.

"Ow!"

"You should have been faster."

She zipped all around the room, I noticed that she wasn't really that fast just good at using the objects to hide her progression and make it appear as if she were popping out of nowhere. Don't get me wrong though, she could definitely beat any human in a race by a lot.

I tried to reign in my anger and think logically about the situation. I could gather that she was trying to spark something in me, whether it be anger, or some other sudden surge of power to trigger the shift. The problem is I didn't know what needed to be done.

Awkwardly I started to wheel towards her trying to shift the sword back and forth between hands. Eventually I gave up, wedged it between my knees and quickly rolled up to where she stood, waiting.

I aimed the sword for her non-sword arm with a clumsy swing, she easily batted it away.

Time for plan B.

I dropped sword on my lap and wheeled as fast as I could over to a basket full of lightweight spears.

I grabbed several a though one at her, she caught it and broke it in half.

I threw another she dodged it easily and ran in a circle around me and flicked my ear.

I lost it.

Something happened I was sure what.

I heard my chair crack.

My vision blurred and my arms and legs had this weird aching feeling as if they'd just been stretched.

I sat on the floor in a mess of my own limbs, shaking , my body drenched in sweat.

I stared in awe at what I saw below me. I looked just like the Den'aty woman.

I looked up, just noticing that she was standing in front of me.

She smiled at me and said "Well done, that didn't take you as long as it has taken some. Now however we can really get down to business."

She offered me her hand I took it hesitantly, realizing that she wanted me to stand.

I glanced behind me, my chair was a splintered mess, obviously it was now unusable.

She pulled me up and I was standing!

I was really standing! I had never done this before unless someone supported all my weight.

My legs were holding me up it was the most amazing thing I've ever felt.

I knew I had this big stupid grin on my face, and the woman let go of my hand. I stood there as she grabbed my discarded sword a couple of feet away. She handed it to me. I stepped forward to accept it and promptly swayed back and forth and fell down gracelessly.

I tried to stand up, but couldn't figure out to get my useless legs under my body. My armor was getting tangled up in all of it and all I accomplished was wiggling on the floor like some sort of giant worm.