Angel found it very hard to stay up, her eyelids fought her to drop fully. When she had walked into the chamber that was hers she had told herself that she was going to stay up all night long and try out every transformation she had to see if they worked. She had started as soon as her father had gone to sleep, which was easy to discover as he had walked into her room to wish her a good night and to see if she was in bed. When she had walked into her room she had found a small box with a dark purple ribbon on it from her father with a note attached that had read that 'although with your behavior as of recent you don't deserve it, here's a gift from me to you'. She had found, upon opening the box, that it had contained a light purple gown of fine silk, she had it on now, it wasn't helping her in fighting off sleep.

"Crane-form!" she thought.

She found herself able to transform easily, although not in the same context as when she was in her adult form. So far she had tried her horse-form and had discovered that she could transform, but not into any adult forms. Instead of transforming into a lovely fiery red mare with long flowing mane and tail she had transformed into a fuzzy dark red foal. The next forms she had tried; Rhinoceros, Lion, Cheetah, Eagle and even a turtle. Each form she changed to was as a younger variant than it should have been. The crane-form that she now changed to was not as graceful as the adult variety, if she would have been an adult she could have transformed into a graceful adult Crane, but instead she transformed into a fluffy yellow, long-legged chick with a light orange beak.

"The Dragon is a most powerful transformation," her teacher at Pronghorn Academy of Sorcery and Magic had said to the class once. "you not only have to be a very powerful being to achieve the transformation, but also must have a clear track of mind and a strong body and will to perform it."

She wondered, at first, if it would be safe in her current form to try to transform into her best and most powerful form, the mighty dragon. She ran through all of the consequences of doing so, of the harm she could do to herself and of waking her father who was somewhere in the palace in his bedroom chamber snoring away loudly. At first, a pang of fear stopped her from trying, her eyelids fell and she almost fell asleep while still debating on seeing if she could transform into her dragon for or not. After much thinking and debating she finally made up her mind.

Setting her arms to her side firmly, standing at tall as she could, she thought of nothing but her dragon form. For a second, nothing happened and she thought that that was the answer, she couldn't transform, but then she got the hot feeling, it started at her feet then moved up until it enveloped her fully. Excited, but trying to keep her thoughts clear, she kept trying. Suddenly, after a few minutes of trying, she flew, screaming, from the floor up to the ceiling, striking her head on the chandelier hard. When she landed on the floor it was hard, she felt great pain in her stomach.

"That is my answer." she sighed sadly, slowly pushing herself up off of the floor. "I can transform but only into mere defenseless forms that are worth nothing in battle."

The door to her room flung back, still foggy after what had happened she barely saw the large figure of her father coming towards her, in fact her vision was so foggy and herself being so sleep deprived, she saw the dark figure as a demon, a danger to her. Sitting up on her knees, holding her hands out in front of her, she tried to hold the figure away from her, but instead she felt the figures arms wrap around her, picking her up and a low voice speaking to her.

"Child!" Master Vile said concernedly. "Child are you alright?"

Master Vile couldn't believe his eyes, he had been sleeping lightly when all of a sudden he had heard a great scream. He had bolted from his bed, grabbing his under robe and throwing that around himself, fastening the thin strings as he raced down the hallway towards his youngest daughter's bedroom chamber. When he had thrown the door open he had seen his youngest child, Angel Irene, huddled on her hands and knees on the floor. Rushing forward, dropping to his knees, he gently wrapped his young daughter up in his arms and lifted her up. His daughter pushed her hands up against him, as if trying to push him back, her eyes were but small slits.

"Child answer me!" Master Vile said, he gently shook Angel. "Are you alright? Are you hurt? Say something?"

Angel shook her head, her eyes still would not open, she was barely awake. She placed her hands out in front of her, when she felt the soft fabric and warm body she slumped down. Feeling herself being shaken again, she wrapped one of her small hands around the arm of the being that had a hold of her. She leaned up against the being and was near asleep when she felt herself being picked up. When she felt the soft mattress fall under her and the sheets and blankets being pulled over her she forgot all fighting, she finally let her eyes fall fully and fell asleep.

The suddenly dark room became lit, not from the candles but from the dark curtains being drawn back. Angel moaned softly and turned to her side, she was still very sleepy. She knew not how long she lay on her side, but suddenly she felt a hand fall on her shoulder, it shook her gently. She moaned a little louder then pushed herself up, when she was fully seated upright she took her hands and rubbed her eyes.

"My child," she heard. "it is time for you to wake up."

"What?" she said, sleep heavy in her voice. "What time is it?"

"Time to get up," she heard. "actually, twenty minutes past time for you to get up."

"Who are you?" she asked, her vision was very foggy.

"Angel sweetie," she heard the voice say. "you should know your father's voice by now."

Angel, at the moment, didn't care who it was that had wakened her, all she wanted to do was sleep some more. She felt the blankets and sheets being pulled back then she felt her father's arms wrapping around her, picking her up off of the bed. She struggled hard to wake up, she shook her head hard a few times. She had no idea what her father was putting on her, but she knew it was comfortable.

"You gave me such a fright last night, Angel." her father said to her gently. "I came in here to find you on the floor. Must have had a bad dream and rolled clean off of your bed."

Angel felt herself being carried over someplace, she was placed in a small stool then left alone for a few minutes. She heard her father place a heavy dish in front of her then she felt his hand that had gently been placed on her shoulder. A few seconds later, she was suddenly thrown into being fully awake. Her eyes opened fully, her vision cleared completely, she saw that her father had placed her on a red cushioned stool that was in front of a mirrored vanity. The vanity had not been there the day before so she figured that he had had it moved in while she was sleeping. Sitting on the vanity was a pure white dish that had water in it that swished lightly. Angel knew well what had happened, she didn't need to bring her hand to her face to find that it was wet. Her father had dampened a cloth in the water then had wiped her face with it, the water he had used was ice-cold.

"Awake now dear?" her father asked her. "Or do I need to wipe your face again to help wake you some more?"

"I'm awake." Angel replied, she wiped her face with her sleeve. "I'm awake."

"Do you feel alright?" her father asked. "You screamed last night and when I came in to see if you were alright I found you on the floor. What happened? Bad dream?"

Angel's mind flooded, she remembered the night before, her attempts to transform only to find that, although she could, she could only transform into forms of the young variety. The last transformation she had tried to do was that of her dragon form and she had failed, miserably and painfully. She also remembered that her father, who was in the same room with her, was the cause for her not being able to transform into any adult forms.

"Yeah, I had a bad dream." she replied. "I dreamed that my father transformed me into a child so he could use me to get two crystals."

"Sounds like a horrible dream, my child." her father replied. "Only a dream though, nothing more."

"Oh but the dream was not a dream." Angel said, she swung herself around quickly in the stool and faced her father fully. "My dream was real. It's an unending dream, one that is happening right now."

"Angel that is enough." her father sighed. "Lets try to be good today and start fresh."

"You're enough to last me a lifetime." Angel yelled. "I wish you and I never met!"

Master Vile turned and faced his daughter, pain was very evident in his face from her words. He walked forward and stood over his young daughter, she looked up at him angrily. After a short while of quiet between them he turned and left the room. He left the door open behind him. Angel stood up and walked around her bedroom chamber for the first time that day. Her father had obviously added a few things to it. Besides the vanity with the mirror attached to it there was a large oval mirror and a changing curtain in the room, there was a red box with gold edges that sat at the foot of her bed and an oddly shaped shelf with a few books on it stood over by the wall. The shelf leaned over, almost looked like it was going to fall over, and was dark metal. When she looked at herself in the mirror she saw that she was wearing a long, floor touching, gown that was all one color; light purple, when she lifted the gown up slightly she saw that she was wearing matching purple slip-on shoes. Turning around fully once, she also saw that there was a large Cherry red wooden jewelry armoire beside the vanity. She couldn't remember if it had been there or not when she had been awoken fully. She contemplated walking forward to check out the armoire when, suddenly, she heard tapping on the door.

"My Princess..." Lynster said, bowing low. "breakfast is ready, everyone is there except for you."