Creature Changers

Sorry for the long time I took. But I was writing my other fic, 'The Mediator', for some time. Yes, to all Mudshippers interested, I'm continuing The Mediator! Please proceed to read if you have not already done so! (advertising stupidly)

To the Valeshipper who did not stop reading, I thank you! I'm not allowed to give a response, I know, but someone didn't leave his email ; I'm glad that you're continuing to support Creature Changers in spite of the pairing thing, and I ask that you leave your email so I can get back to you regarding some points you raised in your review. Thank you!

.hguoht, sciryl eht nwo do I .rehtie semyhr yresrun eht nwo t'nod I .sdarwkcab gnitirw fo aedi eht nwo I .nuS nedloG nwo t'nod I :remialcsiD

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Chapter 18: Half an Actual Chapter

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"Are you interested in old myths and legends?"

Slowly, Isaac turned. He came face to face with none other than the principal himself. Calm, collected, and dressed in dull colours as usual.

"Um... Yes, sir," he replied nervously. Whoa. His height is about the same as mine. Wait, what am I thinking!

The principal nodded unsmillingly. He pulled one arm from behind him and held a large, thick book to Isaac. It was about the size of four scanners, and was covered in thick black leather. Greyish white letters spelt 'Mythical Monsters' on it.

"You might find this interesting." Then he dumped the book onto Isaac's arms, taking 'Old Legends' from him.

Isaac staggered with the weight of the book. It was by Prey Hunter, and Isaac's mind repeated the word 'oxymoron' as he half dragged, half carried the book to the nearest yellow plastic table that stood by the side of another shelf behind the principal. The short, childish looking table let loose a thump as the book was placed heavily onto it.

Who would buy something so heavy? Isaac rubbed his sore arms, wincing as he did. He turned to face the principal.

"Sir, I'm afraid what I'm after is..."

He trailed off. The principal had disappeared. And 'Old Legends' was nowhere to be seen.

"Bother!" Isaac glared at the 'Mythical Monsters' crossly. But there was nothing he could do. Returning to the entrance of the library, he picked up his bag and began to head for the hall.

Maybe I'm thinking too much, but... It seemed as if he was trying to stop me from taking the book.

Then again, he has no reason to do that... has he? He probably doesn't know about Thor... does he?

Maybe he just didn't want me to hold on to a book with a red tag.

Or maybe I'm just hallucinating.

Deep in thought, he failed to realise that the doors to the hall were already opened, and he walked straight into the door opener.

Jumping back, he clutched his forehead with a quiet moan.

"Oh for... Watch where you're going!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Isaac apologised, peeking out from beneath his hand. His death sentence was announced by the extremely irritated look on Jenna's face.

"I've had a terrible headache, I'm dreadfully tired, I wasn't able to sleep much just now, and you hit my head."

"Enough, Jenna," Felix steered her away from Isaac and towards the staircase. Piers followed, grinning apologetically. Mia also exited the hall, yawning. Isaac noticed white gloves covering her hands. He stared after them, feeling guilty.

They spent their energy healing us...

"Come in, Isaac," Kraden urged, shutting the door behind him. "Did you find the book?"

"Yes, but..." Quickly, Isaac explained what had happened in the library, voicing out his opinions about how the principal seemed eager to get the book away from him.

"Why would that old geezer want to stop you from taking the book?" Garet asked.

"Garet! Is that the way to talk about your principal?" Kraden chided. His eyes grew thoughtful. "I'll try to speak to him about this. I don't understand what he's thinking of, either."

"But if that book is the one we're after, we have to get it somehow." Another voice said.

Isaac turned in surprise, and saw Ivan standing behind him. Next to him was the small, purple bird that had fought the cyclops at Fern Mansion. Sheba. Isaac observed her in detail for the first time.

Besides being a royal purple colour, Sheba had other unbirdlike features that caused blinking and releases of 'eh?'. Crown feathers drooped at either side of her head, uncannily reminding Isaac of Sheba's hair. Two long feathers with emerald green and purple tips, which resembled those of a peacock's, grew out from her otherwise short tail, carressing her dark orange claws.

"Hey... I didn't see you guys..." Isaac greeted, staring at Sheba.

"They have changing with us. Kraden, what is that?" Garet asked. "Just a purple bird, right?"

"How many purple birds have you seen? With peacock-like feathers on the tail? Oh, you've probably seen a thousand of them flying around," Ivan said, raising an eyebrow.

"Garet, it's a phoenix," Kraden said. "Yes, I know phoenixes are supposed to be wielders of fire. But the appearance fits a phoenix. Except maybe the 'fiery gold plummage' bit."

"Isaac, is the book...?" Ivan questioned quietly.

"I don't think so. You said it's by Thor, right? Behind 'Old Legends' is a line that says 'Megaera's Study'. Before I could read any further, the principal took it," Isaac replied.

"Megaera? So... we've been after the wrong book?" Ivan heaved a big sigh. "Now what are we supposed to..."

"Ivan! Isaac! Let's begin lesson!" Kraden called.

Sighing, Ivan reached his hand underneath the collar of his shirt. Then he changed.

Isaac blinked.

A four legged creature stood in his place. It was about the size of a full grown Labrador. Excluding the long wings that grew from the top of each front leg. An eagle's head and claws for front legs, and a lion's body and hindlegs made up the gryphon.

"Izzat a... griffin?" Garet asked, pointing.

"It's not polite to point!" Kraden pushed his finger down. "And Ivan prefers the name 'gryphon'."

"Why?"

"Because 'griffin' is too widely used."

"Isn't he kind of small for a gryphon?" Isaac pointed out. The eagle beak let out a growl, much to Isaac's amazement. I was expecting a shriek.

"Weell... It might have to do with the age. Maybe it's still at infant stage. I mean, we tried the other day, and Ivan cannot fly yet," Kraden said.

"I've been a sphinx for years and I still can't fly either," Garet objected.

"You can't fly?" Isaac asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, does that bother you?" Garet said grumpily.

"Don't worry, Garet, flying has its disadvantages, and you should stick to running," Kraden said. "Now, the two of you will begin meditation."

"After all that has happened in the past hour, I don't think either of us can concentrate on meditation," Garet remarked, climbing onto the stage and sitting down nonetheless. Isaac followed suit, before both closed their eyes and minds to their surroundings.

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"What do we have next?" Isaac asked, waving goodbye to Sheba and Ivan.

"IT with Mr Louyi Marx," Garet replied. "The labs are on the fourth floor."

"You mean, computer labs?"

"Yeah. Up the stairs here. Auditorium and Science Labs are on fourth too," Garet rattled on. "Do you have a computer?"

"Mom threw away my old one, and the new one is arriving only two weeks later," Isaac replied.

The two met their class strolling up the last flight of stairs to the fourth floor. Casually, they joined them and talked away as if they had not been elsewhere for the past hour. The door to one of the labs opened, and a very short, very fat man peered out.

He had dark brown hair that stuck out of his head in bunches like mountains, and a spiky brown moustache to match. His eyes were piercingly black, covered by large, thick glasses, and he scrutinised the students with distaste.

"Get in," he said abruptly. Lowering their voices, the class scuttled past him into the laboratory. Seeing the students sit themselves according to class index number, Isaac copied them and moved to computer number seven. Mr Marx moved to the front and climbed onto a stool that sat in front of the visualiser.

"Today, we will be learning how to create viruses. Switch on your computers and log in to your new accounts. Remember, your username and password is your full name, until you change it. I give you 8 minutes to do that."

Hitting the power button on his computer, Isaac turned to Joash, who was sitting beside him.

"Shouldn't we be learning to bust viruses instead?"

"Marxie only teaches seventh and eighth graders how to do that. He frequently grabs viruses ninth and tenth graders create and throw them to the younger ones, and base their exams on that. Whoever gets the last laugh passes," Joash whispered back. "So IT exams are based on skill, as well as luck."

Alarmed, Isaac decided to give the teacher his fullest attention.

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"What do we have next?" Isaac asked tiredly. Mr Marx had done nothing but bark out instructions every couple of minutes, each set of instructions taking only a couple of seconds to complete, leaving the class with nothing to do most of the time. By the end of the lesson, all that was accomplished was the body data of one tiny virus.

"Music," Garet said in disgust. "I hate music lessons. They're real boring. Third floor."

"Music is one of the most important aspect of entertainment. In fact, many conflicts between states and countries involved music, and scientists have proven that it is impossible for a human being to live without music," Rachel informed him.

"Aw, cut it out, Rachel. Not everyone has a crush on Mr Anderson," Joash said. "Besides, we're having Miss Aerolker this year."

Isaac laughed as Rachel raised her books and began to play tag. He recognised the music teacher that stood by the Performing Arts Room as the person who had tortured Ivan the previous Saturday.

Dressed in a bright yellow, ankle length dress with long sleeves, she looked like an overgrown buttercup. As she raised one ring covered hand and waved the students into the room, she trilled in a clear, sweet voice.

"Come along! Welcome to your first music lesson of the year!"

Isaac nearly expected a 'darling' behind her sentence. Following the class, he removed his shoes and placed them in the shoe rack outside the room.

The Performing Arts room had mirrors on all four walls, with barres covering three of them. Even the door was bright silver, with a transparent plastic knob sticking out of it. Leaning against the wall opposite the door were many different instruments; violins, cellos, tamborines and other weird things. A single double-bass lay above several drums, and a few glockenspiels lay in the corner beside a grand piano. Music books and scores were piled neatly one on top of another in a tiny cupboard beside the door, and a rectangular CD case stood on the top like a flag.

Rachel executed a very soft sigh as she entered the room, muttering something about how some teachers were better in technique than others. Chuckling quietly, Isaac and Garet sat down on the vinvyl floor with the rest of the class and waited expectantly as Miss Aerolker swept into a graceful curtsey before them.

"As this is the first lesson, it is common courtesy to introduce ourselves, is it not?" she carolled, smiling as brightly as her dress. "I'd like all of you to come up, and sing a song about yourself. Just pick any song, and change the lyrics. You may use any of the instruments in this room."

There were several moans and groans and 'This is stupid!", but Miss Aerolker just smiled and reached for a glockenspiel.

"I'll begin first." And begin she did. To Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, by goodness knows who.

"My name's Lena Aerolker
I am your music teacher
My house is full of pianos
My dog's called Fortissimo
My name's Lena Aerolker
I am your music teacher."

Most of the students blinked. Miss Aerolker reached for the register.

"Oh no. We have to compose!" Garet muttered. "Compose compose compose compose..."

Much to his horror, the name that Miss Aerolker picked was...

"Mr Garet Mars!"

Garet shot a despairing glance at his classmates, and Joash leaned over immediately to whisper. Isaac wondered what kind of lyrics he was making up as Garet climbed to his feet and grumpily made his way to the pair of congos that stood at the side.

He plays the congo? Isaac wondered. Apparently he did, and his hands moved skillfully between the two drums.

Though his rhythm was good, his pitch was not.

"Garet is the name for me
Name for me, name for me
Garet is the name for me
I can't rhyme anything...

Wherever fun and danger go
Danger go, danger go
Wherever fun and danger go
You'll find me right there too..."

"Almost in tune, Mr Mars! Thank you!" Miss Aerolker said. Garet scowled and moved off.

Much to Isaac's relief, the lesson was up before his name was called. The lyrics that he had thought up on the spur of the moment was ridiculous, and he had no wish to perform it in front of the class.

And then it was Class Contact again.

"Most of the menu has been decided, but we need to work out the shifts and jobs of everyone," Miss Malvonite announced.

"That's fast," Isaac said, taken aback.

"That's the thing about this school. Fund-raising events are taken veeeery seriously, so that the school can become richer," Garet said.

"Half of the class will be in charge of pulling customers, while the other half will man the store itself. Please remember that only people with a glued on smily-face can work at the store," Miss Malvonite said. She then began distributing slips of paper. "I'd like you to write your desired occupation on this. Please take note that if you will not be at the fair this Saturday, you have to ask a parent to write a letter to excuse you."

"What are you going for?" Garet asked, nudging Isaac.

"Store, I guess. I'm not a 'come to our stall!' person," the blond replied, chewing on the end of his ball point pen.

"I go for advertising. I just know I'll yell at the customer if he's a spoilt brat," Garet said, scribbling his 'desired occupation' along with his 'reason' down.

"Oooookay..."

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"Do we have any homework today?"

"Yeah, six questions on the Pythagoras' Theorem chapter; and chapter one of Science And Its Uses," Garet said, closing his locker. "By the way, do you use a handphone?"

"Not much. I also lost one in Vale, and haven't bothered to get another," Isaac replied. His eyes darkened as he remembered where the handphone got lost.

Inside of that tunnel where we went to dig for artifacts... Where I first changed...

"I'd like to go back to talk to the librarian about 'Old Legends'," he said aloud. "I mean, if it weren't in the database, how could she have allowed me to borrow the book last Friday?"

"You really seem to be after that book," Garet commented. "Is it because Kraden might like you better if you held on to a book that holds his interest?"

And Dave's exercise book went flying. Garet dodged.

"I never said I liked Kraden in that way!" Isaac said, creasing his forehead.

"Then... you're after the book because you're obssessed with the book instead!"

And Dave's exercise book flew again.

"Ouch! Hey, stop wasting your time on lil' ol' me and go chase your precious book," Garet said, returning the exercise book to a very indignant Dave.

"Oh, be quiet!" Isaac hadn't thought if laughing was a better option compared to getting angry. So he did both. Chuckling with exasperation, he headed for the staircase.

"Hah. Sometimes I just can't help pissing him off," Garet remarked.

"Next time, try to be nice to my book while doing that," Dave growled. Garet stared at him.

"Oh, is that book your precious darling?" he questioned.

And the poor book took to the air for the third time that day.

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The librarian was a short sighted, young secretary-like girl with pigtails on both sides of her head. Her name tag, reading 'Geraldine', was pinned to her blouse for the first time that year.

"To tell you the truth, the system was down last Friday," she admitted. "All I did was take down your particulars and the book title, to enter into the database later on. And I did notice that the book is not in our records. So..."

"You have no idea where the book is," Isaac sighed. "Did you see the principal leave with it?"

"To tell you the truth, no. I didn't even notice him leave," Geraldine said. "Sorry, but I can't help you there."

Her eyes widened as the machines by the door started beeping continuously.

"You there! Come here!" she hailed. Isaac turned. To his surprise, Mia was fumbling with her bag at the entrance of the library. She removed a book from her bag and handed it to Geraldine.

"Sorry. I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing," she muttered in a soft voice.

She doesn't seem herself. "Mia, are you all right?" Isaac asked. "If you're still tired, you should go home to rest."

"I'm fine," Mia replied, ignoring Geraldine's rants of 'you-shouldn't-be-taking-books-out-without-borrowing-blah-blah-blah'. Drawing a gloved hand across her face, she moved swiftly out of the library.

Alarmed, Isaac bid Geraldine goodbye and grabbed his bag before racing after Mia. The blue haired girl continued moving, walking blindly down the staircases and out of the school, ignoring all of Isaac's calls.

At least she did not tell him to get lost.

Torn between wanting to stop her to ask what happened, and wanting to leave her alone, Isaac followed Mia until they reached the nearby playground. Where he had talked to Ivan only three days ago. Unlike that day, the playground was deserted this time.

Mia dumped her bag beside the small sandbox and sat herself down on one of the red plastic swings. Her hands gripped the metal chains supporting the swing, and by pushing with her legs, she moved herself listlessly back and forth.

Isaac moved to the rubber tyre swing beside her, and glanced at her in concern.

"What's wrong, Mia?"

There was no reply. As Isaac observed her face, he noticed that her downcast eyes were slightly red. She had been crying, and trying to hide that fact.

Why? What happened?

"You might feel better if you got things off your chest," he said.

"I'm fine," Mia replied in a small voice. "I just... discovered how terrible life can be..."

Confused, Isaac stared at her tightly folded lips and tense shoulders.

"Terrible?"

"Something worrying about myself that I never thought too much about..." Mia's blue eyes clouded over, and her knuckles turned white with the force that she exerted on the metal chains.

Isaac stared at his own feet. Life was a mystery, too deep for humans to ponder over. Through many of his previous painful experiences, Isaac had learnt to take things easily. The djinn did not always follow their own advice either, but they had made pacts to cheer each other up whenever something bad came to mind.

"Life can be challenging. Life can also seem impossible. It's definitely not easy to live life. But no matter what happens, we still have to do it," he said. "Happy, or sad, angry or mad, we still have to live."

Mia raised tear filled eyes to him. Isaac smiled ruefully.

"So, rather than spend each day in eternal worry about what might happen, we should face each day happily, and take things as they come. Only worry about today; for you can spend tomorrow worrying about tomorrow," he said. Maybe I should have said that to Ivan, too. "I won't force you to tell me what's going on, but if you ever need someone to pour out your troubles to, I'll always be around."

Though many had treated Isaac as a 'counsellor', going to him with their problems, he could not remember any other time when he truly involved himself in the prescription of his patient. Maybe it was the similarity bond that tied him to Mia. They had barely known each other, yet they had so many things in common that Isaac felt as if he could understand Mia like himself.

Only time will tell.

"Thank you... " Mia said softly. She wiped her eyes with fingers that she pulled out from her glove, and smiled slightly. "I suppose it isn't much to worry about, in the first place."

"Then don't worry about it. Go home and rest now. You're still not fully recovered from healing us," Isaac urged. "And remember to do your homework!"

Rising from the swings, the two parted and headed home, each going through mentally what had happened.

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"Whew. Completed," Isaac said aloud, pleased with himself. He was pretty sure that his Mathematics was done perfectly, even if his forces weren't. Glancing at the sleeping djinn, both lying on his bed, he tiptoed quietly to the light switch and flicked it off. Just as he reached for the controller of the air condition, his nose twitched.

This feeling is... The smell is...

The bed creaked. The ground creaked. The window creaked. Isaac jumped awkwardly out and landed in a dazed heap on the lawn below.

It was a familiar feeling. It was an unfamiliar smell. As the grass rustled beneath his feet, Isaac groggily remembered what had happened when he had followed his nose. Against his movements, he tried to stop moving. But his feet disobeyed his will, and stepped forward one after another.

More! More! Devour it! Go quickly! Go to that smell!

But it's dangerous...

Hurry up!

Slowly, Isaac quickened his pace and accelerated. Half-conscious, he again tried to stop himself from moving towards the Changertract potion, if it was one. But though the smell was different, the effects were the same.

Isaac did not know how fast he could run. But he felt the surroundings charge past him. As the smell began stronger, he recognised the same stirring in his blood, and felt his bones shift and transform. His speed increased greatly as he grew bigger, swifter, and fitter. Unlike other times when he changed, his senses did not sharpen. In fact, they dulled as the smell filled his lungs, and as he sped towards several metal fences and thick woods, his mind registered two words before going to sleep.

Not again...

Rangers yelled at him as he dashed past, wondering what he was. His claws and elbow blades sliced through leaves as he flew on. There were no animals fleeing at the sound of him, as the forest was already unusually empty of wildlife.

Then Isaac's nose was covered with the alluring smell, as something slammed into his face.

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I had intended for this chapter to be much longer, but I promised a friend that I would get it up quickly.

Besides just normal storyline, I've actually put in a lot of 'mysteries' to worry about since several chapters ago. Partly to give Creature Changers characters more life, because these are real problems that humans with 'no life' spend thinking about. In other words, me. And I should have someone yell Isaac's advice at me.

Isaac: If you know how to type up that paragraph of advice, you shouldn't have any problems with that stuff.

Well, bite me! It's not my fault I'm a fussy worrywart!

Daidairo