It had been…maybe a full month sense this whole magical shift happened; I stood in my bedroom looking at the large mirror: I hadn’t grown taller, but it was the perpetual slouch and curve to my spine caused by constantly being hunched over with a book had been removed, so my posture was perfectly straight and I was standing taller which still only made me about five foot four or so. I ran my hands through my hair as it shifted from black to dark stormy clouds, the ends randomly flashing with lightning or flashes of blue through the clouds and my hair as I watched my hair shift and twist between that shift, moving around me as if in a breeze or like I was underwater, my eyes glowing neon blue like a highlighter, that icy off-white turquoise fade to my limbs at my hands and knee down, fading out into tiger stripe like patterns up my arms and legs, my ears now much more pointy and pinned back a little more, thinner, sharper features than I was used to and as I opened my mouth, all sharp teeth, my canines replaced with long fangs, off my temples were a large pair of horns grew off my temples; shaped like a lightning bolt that pointed straight off my head pointed back, the ivory faded to pitch black over the last handful of inches, similar to how my features sharpened; my brows now had these small points at their centers, my cheekbones had sharpened and looked almost fake, there was something almost…feline like about the shape of my face now, enough of a shift I could tell they had changed; my nose widened, but sharpened, my upper lip more bowed and the angle of my eyes too, plus the slit pupils.

              “How do I deal with all of this?” I asked myself

              “Oh, there’s more you could show” Mom said suddenly appearing in my doorway

              “Really?” I asked

              “Of course, and dinner’s almost ready, Dad wanted me to come get you.”

              “What…what else can be showing?” I asked, she laughed softly to herself as she walked over to beside me

              “Some of us can have more animalistic faces or features; big cats are usually the most common, our family usually allows us to have tiger features like tails, paws, faces or other aspects.” She explained as she flicked her hands and her magenta flames crackled across her skin as her arms were replaced with the forelimbs of a tiger, but not orange and black, magenta and burgundy with black/white paws and giant claws. “We can take these aspects for our own protection and our people historically has never been a people to be up front and personal for self-defense, we’re not fighters, it’s why illusion magic is so thick in our blood.” She explained as she softly thumped my shoulder with a paw before it shifted back to her hand. “Because of this illusion, we are able to change our size and assume the form of any creature we’ve seen, family lines usually link to a certain family of creatures, for tigers, but there’s lions, reptiles, monkeys or other creatures. We’re powerful warriors, expert magicians and pristine illusionists…we’re shape-changers, Herc, it’s what we do best.” She explained as she looked at me, resting her hands on my shoulders before lifting one to cup my cheek, making me smile a little as she mussed up my hair. “I’m just happy that you get to be part of this world of ours” she added

              “I am too, Mom”

              “Come on, we don’t want dinner to get cold, no?”

              “Any longer and Dad’s probably gonna start yelling.”

              “Let’s get going then” she laughed as she roughed up my hair as she walked out of my room. I laughed at that as I raked my hair back and out of my face before following behind her down the stairs, following the intense smell of Dad’s cooking.

              “There you two are!” Dad laughed as the two of us bound into the kitchen and dining room, multiple things across the counter, it’s not a meal here if there’s not rice or naan or both sometimes, most times actually there’s both. The smell of saffron, garlic, chili and other herbs and spices thick on the air as I could already feel how hungry I was, Mom had already explained to me that rakshasha have quite intense appetites, which I’ve already gotten used to, but it is intense at times. “Easy there, tiger” he added as I slipped past him as Mom, and I were vying for first-dibs. Dinner is always sometime we try to do together as much as possible, even with Mom’s crazy work schedule, even when I was young, it could be near midnight when she gets home and that’s when we had dinner because Mom and Dad never wanted to me to be lacking on attention from either of them, so…growing up, I spent a lot of time in Dad’s studio and late nights to have dinner with Mom. Wouldn’t give it up for anything really, a lot of people probably would be uncomfortable with the idea of how I would go to sleep past one-two am as a kid, but my parents are well…my parents and I know how much Mom loves her job, so I’d never change a thing.

              “There you three are” I laughed as Holmes, Watson and Moriarty bound in from the backyard. “Enjoying the rain?” I asked as I scratched behind Watson’s ears as they all had fairly damp hair, I laughed before snapping my fingers as dark blue clouds puffed off them leaving them dry.

              “Next month and you’ve got your first class. Are you ready?” Mom asked as she flicked a hand and magenta flames swirled over and opened a cabinet to take a couple glasses out.

              “As I’ll ever be” I sighed as I got silverware and napkins

              “School should be sending you the list of your classes soon” Dad laughed as he nudged my side with his elbow.

              “I…I probably wasn’t excited when I started over at Berk”

              “Well, this is a far different venture for you” Mom added

              “It’s…going to be interesting, I know that for certain.” I agreed as I walked over to the table. “At least, I had both of you to help me with Berkley and now, Mom can help me at Mystic.”

              “So sweet” Dad said as he gripped my shoulder as he leaned over and pressed his forehead against the side of my head as I smiled and laughed softly.