If you have clicked on this story, it either means you are way too curious, or you are one of us. Then again, I have too much curiosity too. Know that once you scroll down, there is no going back. You can't just walk away and forget about it, because the memories and dreams will haunt you. So be ready for the journey ahead. Because it is going to be a tough one. Anyone that isn't ready, go ahead and click out of this page.The rest of you, take a deep breath and scroll down.
Forget adoption. Learning that I was a shape-shifter literally rocked my world, crumbled it up, put it in a shredder, and then tried to tape all the pieces back together. Yet, I was excited. I was ready for the possibilities that I could do. Like flying! Every person in the world had dreamt of flying at some point. And now I could do it naturally. My mind was going insane, trying to process everything I had learned. It became a big mess in there, and I couldn't untangle the knots. I stared at Crystal in shock. “Hello? You in there?” Crystal said, waving her wings in front of my face. “I'm a… shape-shifter? But that's not possible. The laws of physics wouldn't even let a wolf fly, much less let a human be able to transform into one.” I said, and Crystal just snorted. “Physics and science are just what humans made up to explain things. Humans think they've advanced so far when in reality they actually haven't even begun to learn about the world yet.” She said. I was learning about the strange world I was introduced to, and it made everything I had ever learned in school seem like a lie. Was history the way it seemed? Was science all a lie? I gasped. WAS WRITING AND READING NOT THE CORRECT WAY TO WRITE AND READ?! “Don't worry, everything will start to make sense soon. Believe me, I went through the same experience, except I was five. Crystal said, probably trying to calm me down. It didn't help at all. In fact, it just inspired my confusion even more. “What do you mean?” I asked, and Crystal sighed. “When I was five, I fell down the stairs. But in the middle of falling, I transformed into the winged wolf I am now” She said, gesturing to herself. “My parents think it was because winged wolves have extremely flexible bones, which ultimately saved my life. But before that, I had the sickness you just had. Except I was younger, so I could barely move. Funny how something that almost killed me saved my life, huh?” She said, with a smile on her face. But the smile wasn't really happy. I had made that smile, many times before, especially when I was going through things I didn't want her parents to know.
No, things my parents didn't need to know. Like when I healed Andy. Or when I had traumatized my whole fifth-grade class (Long story). Or when I could feel their emotions, like they were radiating off of them. Or the time that I had tried to send a message to Sarah through my mind, just for fun, and it worked. Nothing could be explained, and so I tried to forget about it. But memories just kept coming back, from when I was five in kindergarten and got mad at Grant Singer. I touched his arm trying to grab my pencil away from him, but he got shocked and burned badly. Or when I could swear that I practiced my cello starting at 6:30, and I went upstairs to find that it was 6:00.
My mind kept playing games with me, all the time, everywhere. Even in sixth grade I had always had terrible headaches, the kind that makes you want to scream and scratch her eyeballs out. Nothing had gotten easier. But what if becoming the winged wolf held all the answers I needed? No, I thought, pushing the thought to the back of my mind. Winged wolves aren't real. Shape-shifting isn't real. I'm not adopted. I have no twin, and no sickness, and no weird healing power. This is all just a dream, a really, long dream. I let the relief that flooded through me into the air, pushing it around me. “Woh. Why do I feel suddenly... relieved? Or like… calm?” Crystal asked, and then she glared at me. “What did you do?” “I-” I stammered, feeling guilty for no apparent reason. “I was just thinking about how this is all a dream-” “I'm sure many of us wish it was.” said a voice, in English. I snapped my head to where the voice was coming from and found an all-too-familiar face. The scientist that lived at my house. I widened my eyes and prepared to run. “Oh, no Sky. You don't have to run. After all, everyone has their secrets.” She said, and snapped her fingers. Her body began to swirl and twist like a mirage until her face was no longer visible. It was just a blurred oval with face-like colors. Then, everything started to fade back into place, only different. Her eyes were green instead of blue, and she was wearing a long, dark purple, almost black, robe with a crest on the side. Open Skies academy, it read, in silver and gold thread. The crest looked neat like it had taken a long time to sew in and was made by a professional. It had a picture of a silver eagle in the middle, and it made me more curious than fearful. Her name, which was apparently Magister Edin, was etched in with light blue thread, on the other side of her robe. The scientist's hair was no longer in a bun, and it was dark brown rather than blonde. She didn't have glasses on anymore. There was a silver ring on her finger, but as soon as I looked at it, she hid her hand behind her back.
“Ummm…” I said, surprised once again. “How many times are you people going to shred my world up and leave me to glue the pieces together?” Magister Edin laughed, and Crystal just stared at her in wonder. Crystal transformed back into human, and at this point, I was ready to throw up. I had seen one person completely change their physical appearance, another melt their body into an animal that wasn't supposed to exist, and unfortunately known both of them. Plus, all the flying I did earlier shook up my stomach. Not a happy feeling.
“How do I go back to being human?” I asked, looking at myself. I was still dazed and scared, but before I did anything, I had to be human. Crystal was still surprised that the scientist wasn't a scientist, or something, but she turned back to me. “Since you are new to this, it may take a minute. Squeeze your body really tight, close your eyes, and invisoin yourself as a human.” I did this, and I slowly felt my body weight changing, becoming lighter. Suddenly, I was upright again. I had a horrible headache, my body hurt, and my eyesight was blurry, but I smiled. Being a wolf was great, but also really insane. I had to learn how to control my human and wolf thoughts before the two started a war on each other.
“Who are you?” I asked, my voice shaky. She just smiled at me some more. “Isn't that the question we all want answered? The real question is, who are you.” Edin said, and I thought about it for a second. “I'm not sure yet. Especially since ya'll decided to, you know, shred every fact I've ever learned!”I stood staring at both of them, confused but trying not to show it. If weird people that could do impossible things were going to ask who I was, I wasn't going to say something stupid. “Well, Sky Turner. Let's just say that I am not a normal person. In fact, I am not a person at all.” Edin said, and I wasn't surprised as well as shocked at the same time. “Kinda got the “Not regular person” from the whole, melting your body into a completely different form, thing. But what do you mean, not a person?” I asked, but Edin only smiled sweetly at me and put her hand on my shoulder. “Just brace yourself.”
