Legends: The Emerald World

Stuck in the body of a black house cat, Ase looked around with a confused face, her eyes wiggled back and forth before she flew away, running all around the camp. Climbing trees, sprinting through the bushes and eventually landing in the firepit, setting her tail ablaze.

Shin jumped in and caught her, Although she was scratching him, he pinned her down. Almost every beast freaks out on their first beast transformation, and usually, the parents are there to take care of the small rampage. It's like a panic attack, but instead of panicking, it makes them extremely agitated and active.

Ase is a house cat so catching her isn't a problem, but when getting to massive beasts like dragons or bicorns, them freaking out usually end up in a few burned settlements. Most of the time humans hear of a young dragon obliterating a city or a village it's on their first transformation, but in their case, from a dragon to a human, not the reverse.

Large beasts get born as beasts and then get the ability to transform into humans, most of them are mystical monsters like dragons, unicorns, griffins, or behemoths.

Small beasts are the opposite, they get born into humanoid bodies and then shift into their true beast form. All lycanthropes are in this category, like werewolf, wererats, and people like Ase, werecats.

After a few minutes, Ase finally calmed down, "Why am I a cat-meow!"

"I told you that the fastest way to get a beast form is to get tamed. And I managed to unlock your beast form, it was easier than you think." He let her go and she walked around, looking at her tail.

"Just like that? You did nothing but touch my head and make me feel weird." She sat and looked at him.

"Is that how it looks to you?" Shin smiled, "It's far more complicated than what I care to explain. What matters is that you can now transform, not freely, but at least you can do it." He sat and Ase suddenly shifted back to her humanoid form…

"It's cold…" She looked down, finding herself naked. Her face quickly burned red and she jumped behind a tree. "Why am I naked!" She cried, glaring at Shin from behind the tree.

"Clothes aren't a part of your body, they'll be left where you transformed." He pointed at her clothes. "Keep that in mind, at least until you get an item to store and get them out for you."

Shin approached her clothes and pent down, about to pick them out. She cried, "Don't!" He stopped and looked at her, "You're naked, will you come here and pick them up?"

"Well…" She looked away.

"Fine, I'll look that way so you can come and pick them up." Shin pointed at another tree in the opposite direction.

"No, I don't trust that you won't look!" She gasped.

"Are you still confused due to the transformation earlier? Take a moment to rest, shifting forms is extremely exhausting." He moved away and sat down, "We'll talk after you'll rest."

"That's it!" Ase gasped with a smile, "I'll transform again and come pick them up!"

"Don't, you'll exhaust yourself and end up unable to move." He looked at her, "Just sit tight and rest for a bit."

"It'll be fine." She replied with a cocky smile.

"No, it won't. You'll come out, get tired, be forced back into your humanoid shape, unable to move for at least an hour, and I'll be forced to help you wear your clothes since you'll get sick without them." He pointed at her, "Sit, and don't transform again, one time a day is enough for a start."

"Don't worry, I don't feel tired at all." She giggled, "I might be more talented than you think."

"Ase, listen to me, or at least say you're fine with me helping you wear your clothes. I can't have you be angry at me for the rest of the trip." It'll be a while before the two can get separated. Any crack in their relationship now can lead them to death in this harsh forest, and he sure doesn't want her skulking on him.

"Fine…you got my word, you can see me naked if your words are true." She gave him a thumbs-up before shifting back to her cat form.

She walked from behind the tree and toward him with a smug face, "See-meow…I'm fine-meow…" But after just a second, and before she could make it to her clothes her head started spinning and her eyes wanted to close…she was forced back into her humanoid form and fell flat on the ground, unable to move a muscle.

"Told you…" Shin sighed, his eyes closed. "I still saw nothing." He stood and felt the ground, immediately finding her clothes, "Got them, so how are you?"

Ase growled, "My head hurts… I feel numb…"

"I did warn you." He approached her only using his aura sense, "I'm not looking at you, I'm using that aura sense to find your core and then guess roughly how your body is arranged." He reached down, touching her hand. "Got one hand."

"This…" He rummaged through her clothes. "This should be that one-piece rug you were wearing, I'll just do this." He pulled both of her hands through the rug and then dragged her whole body to pull her inside the rug.

"Now you should be covered enough." He opened his eyes and she was indeed covered, wearing the rug flipped inside out, but that didn't matter now.

"Thank you…" Ase wanted to look away, but couldn't.

"I'll just pull you near the fire so you can stay warm. Wear the rest of your clothes later when you can move." He did just that, and time quickly passed by.

When Ase could finally move, she stood and silently approached her clothes, picked them up, and went behind a tree to fix her outfit. After she wore all of her clothes, she came out and approached Shin.

"Sorry about earlier…I should've listened." She looked both sad and ashamed. "And…thank you for not looking."

"Instead of apologizing and thanking me, how about a promise that you would listen next time?" He stood and tapped her shoulder, "That would be more useful."

Ashe smiled, "You got my promise!"

The three traveled together for two days straight, sleeping one at a time at night and hunting for food. Their harsh journey had led them closer to the border, but soon found a grim sight, a slave carriage sneaking its way through the border.