Secrets of a Hybrid

Boom!

Oww…

Shit. That hurt…

"What’s this?" I asked the still air and the dangerously stacked books around me. I examined the dusty, red leather bound book in front of me. The book commanded me to open it, and my curiosity obliged.

Passage from The Grand Wizards

Over a thousand years ago, there was a guild of wizards who focused their magic on form shifting which they called polymorphic spells. The wizards studied creatures and objects to understand what they were on a fundamental level. With this knowledge, the wizards could create polymorphic spells to allow them to transform into that creature or object. When the spell was created, the wizards would make jewelry or tools to allow the wizard to focus and amplify the spell on themselves. Before long, the wizards could shift into tall, sturdy oaks, speedy, little mice, rocks rolling down the mountain and most simple objects or creatures until a young wizard’s ambitions took it a step further.

The young wizard was studious and ambitious in his research to morph into more complex creatures. He wished to morph into hawks to soar the blue skies, dolphins to explore the secrets of the seas, and bears that rule over the mountain peaks. The young wizard wanted to break through barriers that blocked the other wizards from fully understanding complex creatures. He started with the hawk as he began his expedition. The young wizard ran into a rare beast woman while on his expedition into the nearby forest as she sped past him chasing her prey. He had never met one of her kind before, so his heart quickened at the encounter. Filled with intrigue, he followed after her. The young wizard searched for the beast woman, but she left no trace behind her. For days, he hiked through the forest in search of the rare creature, but he had failed in his quest.

A year later, he saw her once more speeding through the brush of the forest. He had spent the year perfecting his hawk polymorph spell and decided now was the time to test it. In an instant, his bones cracked and bent while skin was set ablaze as feathers sprung from each pore on his body. Some bones contorted while others conjoined to form his legs and talons. He had never experienced such a painful shift, but a complex creature required a complex shift. Blood ran down his face as his new beak hardened. His eyes blurred as his sight became acute. The young wizard had success as the pain began to dull while he settled into his new form. Only a moment passed before the new hawk attempted flight. Smacking into a tree, the hawk stumbled on the forest floor. He stared at the sky understanding that his form does not grant the knowledge of a hawk but the body of a hawk. “A spell can give you wings, but you must learn to fly with those wings.” The young wizard heard his teacher, Loulee, echo in his mind. He knew he would not find that beast woman now, but one day he would see her again.

Another year passed as the wizard mastered his hawk form. He had accomplished his first goal in only two years earning him fame inside his guild, but he had not forgotten the speedy beast woman in the forest. He set out to find her using his hawk shifting capabilities. True to form she appeared again in the forest speeding after her prey. The young wizard followed her through the forest to an unmarked cave. His curiosity pushed him to follow this incredible creature. Through the cave, he followed her as she darted down each tunnel when he realized she had shifted into a beast, but he sensed no magic. His interest in her grew from intrigue to determination to learn all about her. Finally, they reached the cave’s end. In the light of the moon, she shifted into a beast woman as he admired her form as it rested along a river bank. His wings were sore after hours of tracking her. He landed on the branch above her to rest.

Now that he had tracked her, he was determined to learn all he could about this rare race that seemed like a legend. He studied her for months on an expedition when he realized his interest had turned into attraction. There was beauty in both her beast and woman forms. She could easily become one to the other without magic. She was often alone, but on occasion another would appear, and they would speak in a language formed of growls and words that he could not understand. So much mystery before him that he hungered to learn. Soon he knew he had to return to the guild because hawk form had begun to weaken. He spent one last hour admiring the beast woman asleep by the river bed. Her fur was silver like the clouds in a storm with tips of black upon her ears and tail. Her long, black hair lay wildly under her head as she slept. Attraction filled his heart, but his small hawk body grew tired. Back to the cave he flew leaving the fair woman peacefully asleep.

Once more, he walked on two legs into the wizard guild.The young wizard had stayed a hawk for nine months, which left him with some side effects. For weeks he slept before emerging from his slumber with his magic restored. He visited his teacher to report his latest adventure in shifting. As he recounted his trip, he realized he missed the beast woman and was faced with an impossible romance, which he could not escape. He dove into his research to escape his desires by studying the far sea though his mind returned to the forest every day. The beast woman haunted his dreams beckoning him back to the river beyond the cave. In the depths of the sea, he would drown his mind in the dolphins. Swimming with them. Bursting out from the water to breathe salty air. Eventually, he morphed into a dolphin. It was more painful than the hawk as skin changed on the sleek shine of a dolphin. Ramire began to understand how the more complex a creature was the greater the pain he would encounter during a shift.

His dreams of the beast woman continued as if the forest cave and river called to him. He reminded himself that such a romance is illegal and impossible. He would end up dead if he pursued that damn beast woman. This was an unanswerable scenario. He remained tormented until the day Ramire found the solution in his studies. By creating a ring with the spell to turn himself into a beast man, he could be with the beast woman as one of her kind. However, the spell had one complication. When Ramire became a beast man, he could only hold the form for a day unlike his previous polymorph spells.

The young wizard visited the woman beyond the forest cave as a beast man after adapting to the strength and speed of this unusual form. Their first meeting resulted in his near death because the best woman chased him away from the river bank, but still he returned time and again. The more time he spent trying to get to know her; the more he learned about his form. Soon, the young wizard began to speak her language, but she would continuously chase him away. No matter what he said or how he interacted with her, he would run away with his tail tucked between his legs. Until one fateful day, Ramire arrived in time to rescue the beast woman from a rock slide near the entrance of the cave, and for the first time he heard her say thank you. At that moment, Ramire realized he had fallen in love with the beast woman. Ramire met the beast woman many times in beast form after that day until she fell in love with him too.

However, interracial love was forbade by most of the races for fear of what the offspring would become. These offspring were considered illegal, and the whole family could be put into slavery or sentenced to death. Ramire knew he had to reveal his secret to his love. Ramire told her of his secret and of the masking ring he used to meet her. The beast woman accepted his secret, but she knew they had no future. Ramire could never live with his beloved because after one day the spell ended and his beast form mask would fall. Ramire was forced to wait three days before he could use the masking ring again. Ramire decided to try to perfect the spell further like he had done before with his hawk transformation. Ramire worked with the beast woman for two years trying to perfect the spell.

Finally, he reached a breakthrough by understanding the beast woman on a molecular level by studying her blood, and he could become a beast man for a fortnight at a time. Since the spell's strength grew, Ramire would have to wait a month in between each spell to allow his body to rest. The beast woman would faithfully wait each time for him to come back after he would revert back to his wizard form. The month would go by so slowly for them both. The beast woman wanted to find another way to help them be together.

One day, the beast woman asked if she could shift to a wizard to spend more time with Ramire. Ramire considered carefully if such magic could be used on a non-wizard or what effects it could have on the woman. Theoretically, the masking ring could cast the polymorphic spell on a non-wizard creature with innate shifting abilities after being created by a powerful wizard. Ramire decided to try to create such a spell for his beloved.

Ramire went to seek counsel from his lifelong friend and mentor, Loulee. Loulee and Ramire spent an entire month in archives to learn what such a spell would need to exist. They found that to allow non-magic users to use a wizard's item freely, a blood pact must be sealed in with the spell to form the ring. The blood pact would allow any blood relative or descendants of either bloodline to use the ring. Loulee cautioned Ramire that such an item could bring chaos to the guild and his beloved if he moved forward. Ramire thanked his mentor for the wisdom and forged the new masking ring with the beast woman at his side.

Ramire was successful in his quest to create the ring for his beloved. However, the ring did come with a cost for the beast woman. Each time she would use the masking ring some of her lifetime would be sacrificed. The woman would lose a day of her life each time she spent a day as a wizard, but she had no fear because she could spend all her time with Ramire. The two finally wed after 5 years of their courtship.

After a decade of peace together, the beast woman's clan learned of her secret union. Her clan came after Ramire to punish him for the crimes of interracial marriage by putting him to death. The beast woman begged and pleaded for the wizard’s life, but the clan refused in fear of the punishment the Gleaca Council would deliver upon the clan. To save her beloved, the beast woman brokered a deal with her clan to have Ramire returned to his guild, but the beast woman would die in Ramire's place.

Furious with this deal, Ramire reached out to his mentor for help upon his return to the guild. The mentor, Loulee, was ashamed of Ramire, but he would not allow that poor woman to die. Loulee had to confront the wizard guild about the masking ring and Ramire's request for help for his beloved. The guild was astonished by Ramire's accomplishments and crimes, which caused them to deliberate over the ordeal for days.

Finally, the guild sent Loulee in secret to the beast woman's clan with a new proposal. The guild offered for Ramire to make the beasts a new masking ring each year for a member of the clan as long as the beast woman lived. The beast clan would not know what race the masking would shift to and that the spell could only work for 3 days at a time. Ramire would have to turn over all his work and research to the wizard guild. In addition, the beast woman and Ramire would have to give up their marriage, but in place of death, the woman would have her memory wiped of her relationship with Ramire. The beast clan would attain an advantageous power, and the guild would avoid the fury of the Gleaca Council and access to Ramire’s research.

The beast clan accepted the deal, which saved Ramire and the woman's life. Ramire spent the next 48 years studying the races, creating a new ring each year, and bonding the ring with each selected beast person through blood pact. Ramire tried to avoid the aggressive races in favor of the peaceful races on the planet. He only made a few rings that could shift into the aggressive races after the beast clans’ complaint. On the 48th year, Ramire received word that the beast woman had died in her sleep. Ramire had fulfilled the deal between the guild and the clan and turned over his research to the wizard guild.

Ramire was finally free to live his life again. He had spent so much time on research that he had forgotten about the people he left behind. Although his mentor had passed on, Loulee's daughter, Touree, reconnected with Ramire, and two years later they were married. Ramire and Touree had twins a few years later. Ramire passed on the masking ring he still had on to his children. Eventually war ravaged the land causing the magical rings and the beast clan that wielded them faded into history. The story is known only in legends to warn future wizards of the dangers of ambitions and magic.

End of passage…

What the hell! Did that book hit me that hard on the head? I feel like I actually watched that wizard’s life unfold. Chills exploded through my body. My mother's ring on my finger began to glow.

"What the-" Lightning burst out of the ring, and my whole body was charged with magic. The bolts of light struck the towers of books and the high ceiling above me. I couldn't move from my spot in the wooden chair. Why is this happening to me?

"Hey, you!" A voice shouted at me from afar. I couldn’t turn to see who was there, but I could feel someone approaching me. The person groaned as stray bolts of lightning burned them.

I can't just let myself sit here in this chaos. I focused hard on the flow of magic storming in my body. If I can halt the flow then I can save the now crispy person behind me. All my attention went to blocking the magic like damming a river. Chills flooded my whole body as the magic ceased and the lightning storm faded. All the strength in my body fell away, leaving me limp in the chair for a moment. I couldn’t stay like this. This was supposed to be a simple in and out job, but instead this damn book got in the way of the plan…

Lightning cracked above me as the person trying to stop me called magic of their own. I made my limp body move, keeping the book close to me as I tried to escape the library. Narrowly dodging all of the known traps, I headed toward my window of escape. The bolts of lightning began streaking my body, but my skin was numb from my own lightning magic a minute ago. Every spell my attacker launched, my body absorbed like a lightning rod. Bouncing and dodging traps was easy at this moment. I looked up at my exit and went for it with the book in hand. I needed time to understand what I saw. What this ring had just done… I jumped through the window just as the sun began to rise, leaving my purser behind me. Charging into the forest, I left the Wizard’s Guild behind. Hopefully, this book would be all I needed.

“Rory…I mean, Ro, what took you so long?” My best friend asked as I returned to our little campsite in the Evergreen Forest.