The stranger had two legs, two arms, a head, a face, and looked human in the dark. In the sunlight, though, its scaly light gray skin shone. Its eyes held no soul, compassion, or understanding, only hatred and anger. It was stronger than any human, and its sharp claws cut through Karp’s leather and tore skin. Karp covered her face and took each blow with her arms, chest, and stomach. 

The blows stopped long enough for Karp to move her hands and look at the creature. It raised a dagger, then drove it down, knocking Karp's hands aside and driving the blade into her left shoulder. Karp screamed, and the creature wrenched the knife from her shoulder, rendering a piece of flesh. Karp recoiled her right arm to block the next attack. A strange tingling in her fingers spread as her hand hung limply in the air. The feeling grew from her fingertips and traveled through her knuckles and into her palm.

The monster plunged the dagger toward the base of Karp's neck. A shockwave emanated from Karp's palm and tore the creature's arm from its body before continuing into the ceiling and blowing a hole. Light poured directly on the animal. It screamed and clutched its face. The creature's spine straightened as it wailed and moved away from Karp. During the creature’s momentary confusion, Karp had reached across her body and unsheathed her steel dagger. The creature continued its assault until Karp reached up and plunged the blade into its eye. Then, the creature fell limp on Karp. Karp pushed the limp carcass off with the last of her strength. 

Karp felt the dirt floor on her back change to the shop's hard wooden floor. A woman in the shop shrieked at the sight of a person lying there covered in blood. People rushed toward Karp, and she felt the ground pull away. 

She then woke in an unfamiliar room; bandages covered her upper body. A preteen boy sat in the room, staring out the window. He explained what had happened: how Karp was standing looking at a shirt one moment and then was lying in a pool of blood the next. The store's manager, Slart, used medical supplies from the store to stop the bleeding and dress the wounds. Slart and a few customers had carried Karp to the Traitor's Tavern Inn and brought her to an empty room. Karp was unconscious for five days before waking. The owner of the store, Korg the Whitecoat, as well as Slart and Slart's adopted son, Nort, took turns watching over Karp as she lay unconscious.

Later that evening after Karp awakened, they all gathered in the Traitor's Tavern Inn to hear what had befallen Karp.

The Whitecoat was impressed by Karp's natural ability. Usually, a person shifted for the first time in their early teens, and the shifter was then brought to a local lord or a known shifter to become an apprentice. While an apprentice, they learned the basics of shifting, the limitations of shifting, and about the Shift World in general. Karp had lived in such solitude her whole life, though, that she didn't even know she should seek out a master, yet she was still an expert at traveling between the two worlds undetected and had even survived an attack by a creature that ended up being a skeleton. The Whitecoat offered to train Karp and make her his first apprentice.

In exchange for her room in the Traitor's Tavern Inn, Karp spent her days working at The Whitecoat's trading compound outside of the village. The Whitecoat started the training by educating Karp on the Shift World and by teaching her to fight with weapons. She didn't shift for a full year after barely surviving the skeleton attack. However, she's trained and gathered supplies in the Shift World ever since.

Karp finished the last of her beer and stirred from the thoughts of her past. She stared at the steel dagger digging into the table. The dagger proved that she had survived and overcame. Karp sighed and stood but banged her hip on the table, and when it stopped shaking, she counted four empty mugs. 

i guess trading this in is harder than i thought. i shouldn't put it off any longer.

Karp sheathed her steel dagger and headed toward the door to find out if the item she wanted was still at the market.