“Look who finally made it!” A boy yelled as they entered the courtyard.

He recognized him as being Randal, the boy who could control tigers and had so much power that he could actually change his hands into the claws of lions.

For some mages, they can only control certain parts of an animal, others can control the entire animal, and then there are the people that can certain aspects of their body into the actual animal. But rarest of all are the people who can do a full body transformation. These people are very useful even if they can only turn into a rat; they could be used for infiltration, intel, or other things. They are one of the most valuable of the battle mages.

“What was his name again?” Questioned a boy that he didn’t recognize.

“Ash, but everyone just calls him White.” Whispered another boy he didn’t recognize.

“Why? There barely seems to be a white spot on him.”

“It could be just a rumor,” The other boy whispered. “But I’ve heard that under all the nastiness, he’s completely white. One boy said that he got wet once and all the dirt washed away to show just how totally white he is.”

“I heard even his eyes are white.” Another boy added. “That they bore into your soul if you ever meet them, but he never looks anyone in the eyes. They’re always covered by his hair and he never looks anywhere but at the ground.”

The useless chatter went on several minutes until Marcus said, “Enough. Form a line. You new boys go to the back. The old ones will show you what to do. Do your best to maintain some control over your animal when we set it free, if you can’t, we’ll get someone to take care of it. Just remember, anyone who’s useless will end up like White here.”

Then Marcus grabbed Ash and pulled him towards a chain that was hooked in the wall. Ash struggled, he kicked and pushed against the hold the man had on his wrist. He remembered the last time that there was new people; it would be better to just take the pain of insubordination over what little control they would have over their animals.

Marcus slapped him across the face with his other hand, sending pain ricocheting through his head. Ash stopped struggling and allowed him to be dragged to where the metal chains were.

Marcus slapped the chain around his ankle and walked away. Ash cowered back to the edge the courtyard, so he’d at least have some semblance of safety.

First in line was Randal. A gate rose and out pranced a lion. Some of thee new boys look frightened, but everyone else was unworried: they knew he already controlled the beast.

The lion walked towards the line of boys, his tail flicking back and forth as he advanced. All of a sudden, he pranced, and his jaws opened and clamped shut right in the face of one of the new boys. He squeaked a scream.