The New World: Changeling (Part Four)

We made it to the combat field unscathed. Our teacher for this session, Mr. Hatchinson, was already here. He stood waiting, his dark green dragon scales reflecting the sunlight, his batlike wings folded upon his back as a tail swayed between his legs.

Soon enough, the rest of the class arrived. I stood next to Rin and Janet—It was a joint class session, with people from both the Ares house, and the Alana house. I assume that was to have two separate sides to fight against each other.

"…This is going to go well." I said, quietly. I was already dreading the combat, knowing that quite rightly, I was going to die at least once in this class.

"Today isn't an ordinary class." Mr. Hatchinson started off with. "We have a guest teacher… Someone I believe you all know of."

In a plume of light, a woman appeared. She was wearing a red tank top, black cargo pants, had a sword on her holster, a leather belt, an armless black leather jacket that was unzipped. She was rather busty, and curvy in all the right places, showing a unique sense of feminine beauty. She had vibrant skin, waist-length sleek black hair, and dark brown eyes.

I recognised her from not ten minutes ago.

Mr. Hatchinson gave a slight bow. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, My Lady."

I let out a quite gasp, and immediately bowed. Face-to-face with a god?! The god of war, no less! In a combat training session! My heart began racing as I got nervous. This did not bode well for the following lesson. At all.

Everyone else bowed.

"At ease." Ares said. I gulped quietly, and everyone rose. "Now… Which one of you will be my first…" Ares scanned over the onlooking students. His gaze finally fell upon a buff looking guy from the Alana house.

"You. Come here." Ares said, pointing to the ground in front of him.

The guy gulped, nodded, and stood in front of Ares. I could see beads of sweat form across his forehead.

"What is your name?" Ares asked, simply.

"…Z-Zacariah. Just call me Zac." He said, shifting nervously.

"Now…" Ares snapped her fingers, and a sword appeared in Zac's hand.

"W-What do I do with this?" He stammered.

Ares smiled. "You fight." She said, simply. "I'll let you take the first strike."

Zac gulped. "A-Are you sure? You're t-the god of war."

"I'm sure. I'll go easy on you—try to match the skill level of your instructor, Mr. Hatchinson, so I'm not completely undefeatable."

Zac gulped nervously. "Right… Right. Full strength for me, then."  He let out a slow breath, obviously trying to gather his thoughts. I watched with curiosity.

"The guy is so gonna get wasted." I heard a random student whisper to one of her nearby friends. I couldn't help but agree. Though it would be interesting to study the way it happens, at least… Though maybe that'll be the point of this class.

"Hiyah!" Zac swung his sword—but… Something was off. I couldn't tell what.

Faster than I could digest, Ares swiftly rushed forward and ran her sword through Zac's chest.

"You hesitated. Because I was a girl." Ares said, right next to Zac's ear as she leaned over Zac's shoulder slightly. "I trust nobody here will make that mistake again."

Zac turned into a shimmering light and vanished. He would respawn in the lobby… That, I knew. But it still made me uneasy. Well, at least there was no mess.

Ares turned to face me. "Next. You." She said.

"E—Eh?! M-Me?" I stammered.

She nodded. "Yes. Get up here."

I gulped, walking up to Ares. Zac re-emerged at the back of the crowd, looking pretty afraid. With good reason.

Ares smiled. "Strike me. Try to strike me." A sword appeared in my hand.

I gripped the sword, raising it. Oh god… Was I really going to have to hit a god? …Well, if I didn't hit her, she was going to hit ME.

I readied my sword. I didn't really know how to use it yet, but I swung at Ares. She blocked with her sword. "Nice strength. Sloppy swing. Let me show you how it's really done."

Ares dropped her sword, causing me to stumble back in surprise, before racing up to me and kneeing me in the gut.

I doubled over, and collapsed to the ground. OW. I let out a loud groan.

"Try to catch the enemy off guard!" She shouted, looking over me, and the rest of the class. "If you can disarm them by such matters, do it!"

I rolled over. "Is… Is that all… My Lady?" I gasped, still out of breath.

"For you? …For now. You may join your classmates." Ares smiled.

I crawled next to Rin and Janet. Rin knelt down and offered a hand to help me up, which I accepted.

"You may be wondering why I shifted into a girl earlier; it was in preparation for this class. …It was necessary to gauge how you all reacted to surprises. Combat skills are necessary in this world. There are some things of which we gods cannot protect you from. "  Ares said, simply.

"Does that mean you're going to change back into a guy?" Luke asked from the other side of the crowd.

"No. I think I rather like this form." Ares smiled, simply.

I watched with interest, still clutching my stomach. That was gonna bruise.

***

The rest of the day progressed normally. There wasn't that much differentiation from the normal activities, and Ares didn't stick around.

I was walking out of the school gates, breathing out deeply. I was glad that my transformation seemed to go over well with the other students—even though I got weird looks, this kind of thing wasn't unheard of, and people just kinda shrugged it off. It was kind of refreshing, in a way, knowing that I didn't have to worry all too much about it.

Janet seemed to be waiting for me outside. She rushed up to me, smiling. "Hey! How was your day?" She asked.

"Ah, it was fine. I only died 10 times today!" I smiled. Hey, I cut my death rate at least in half from when I first showed up!

Janet raised her eyebrows, and chuckled. "2 times for me, but they were lucky, and cheap shots." She snickered.

"Oh man, it must be nice not to die so much…" I shuddered. "At least there's no gore…"

Janet shifted nervously. "I kind of hate it. I hate having to be so cautious about everything. Why Myria put into place such a system boggles my mind…"

"Maybe she's just insane." I sighed. "There's no way anyone can get a good education in there outside of physical skills."

"I just think she doesn't understand how things should work in an educational setting." Janet nodded. She paused for a moment, before looking up at me directly in the eyes. "Naema… Would you like to come over to my place?"

I blinked, taken a little by surprise. "Ah, uh… Well, uh, sure! I'd love to!" I nodded.

Janet smiled, brushing a bit of her long, dark red hair out of her face. "That's great! I'll show you the way!" Her bright blue eyes sparkled a bit, as she offered her hand in a friendly gesture.

I looked at her hand, and shrugged. "Eh." I took it, smiling, and we began to walk away from the school.

"How are your studies going?" I asked.

"They're… Insane." Janet sighed. "I need to buff up for combat training. And I need to remember about ten different forms."

I nodded. "Studying the combat book Ares gave us is gonna be a pain in the ass. Wanna look through it together when we get to your place?"

Janet smiled. "Yeah. But we gotta relax first. Today was stressful."

I couldn't help but agree with that. "So… It's kinda interesting that Ares decided to keep her form as a girl."

"I guess she liked it." Janet snickered. "Gods get bored with their forms sometimes… Maybe this was a breath of fresh air for Ares?"

I shrugged. "Anything's possible. Though I certainly wasn't expecting her to show up in our class."

"Yeah, that caught me a little off-guard. It's a rare occurrence, but it DOES happen. Perhaps Myria requested it. House leader duties, and all that."

I nodded. "Yeah. I did hear somewhere that at the Festival, Myria announced her plans for the other gods to become more active in the school's classes."

"That's kinda crazy. A big thing to ask…." Janet sighed.

"Yeah… Though I assume they can be in multiple places at once. They are gods, after all."

"That's true. Suppose you'll know by the end of the year…"

I nodded quietly, falling silent. We walked past the alchemist's place, where I saw the old lady sweeping dead tree leaves off of the pathway. I guess it was that time of year.

We passed several more buildings, and the local shopping centre. Then, we turned right, and approached a fairly big house with a lush garden.

Janet lead me to the door, opening it. "Take your shoes off when you get inside, 'kay?" She said, as she slipped off her own.

I nodded, and did so. The house was rather well furnished, and felt warm—did someone have a fireplace going?

"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" Janet called out. "Bought over a friend!"

Janet's mom walked into the living room. She was tall, and—a… catgirl? A winged catgirl, no less. "Ah! I see!" She blinked upon noticing me, and smiled. "And who might you be?"

"Naema." I smiled. I didn't know Janet's parents were Changeling's! Since Janet was a human, I thought…

"A pleasure to meet you, Naema." Janet's mom beamed. "Would you like me to get you a drink or anything?"

"Hmm… Some juice might be good." I shrugged.

"Same here." Janet said. She seemed… Slightly nervous for some reason.

"Two cups of juice, comin' right up!" Janet's mom headed into the kitchen, and began pouring some glasses of juice.

I turned to Janet. "…You okay? You seem a little… Jittery."

She shifted nervously. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it. …Shall we head to the lounge?"

I shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

We headed to the lounge, and took a seat on the couch. My tails curled over my lap instinctively, as I searched through my school bag, pulling out my study books.

Janet's mom came back and set the glasses on the table. She smiled at Janet. "You two have fun, alright?" She then exited the room.

Janet gave a relieved sigh. I chose to ignore it, since she didn't really want to talk about it.

"Right… So what are we looking for?" I said, flipping through my book.

"…Let's see… …Ares said… Study the Jiterech Arts?" She frowned.

"Ah. Page…. 1003." I flipped through the heavy tome until I found the page.

"The Jiterech Arts is a combat form, created by one Mitera Jitrech in 307 A.G." I read aloud. "It was created in response to a unique threat of monsters that the gods were using to test this man's claims of being the most adaptable, and strong, male in a town under Ares's rule. This gave him the idea of testing his claims.

It's said that Jitrech was under siege for 3 years and forty one days. Studying the monsters patterns and creating a fighting style to defeat them proved to be a difficult task, but Jiritech was able to fend them off and survive long enough to send them back to the realm they once came from. This is a collection of the fighting styles, as witnessed by Ares. He has honoured this man's dedication to his claims and abilities by way of embedding them in this book for the ages."

Janet blinked. "That's interesting."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah. So what we've got to do is get down notes on the combat forms, and study them thoroughly in order to be able to answer the quiz tomorrow."

"Sounds good. Let's get to it." Janet smiled.
We flipped through the pages and took notes for a good half hour, before getting a little more bored.

Janet gave a slight yawn. "…Oh man, didn't I say we should relax first?!" She said.

I blinked. "Oh! Oh yeah! I forgot!"

Janet smiled. "Well, let's take some time off to relax, then."

We leaned back on the couch, and finished off our drinks. Janet's mom came in and asked if we wanted a refill.

"Ah, no, thank you." I smiled.

"Right. …You know, Janet, you really should think on that o~ffer~" Janet's mom smiled, swaying her hips to the side gently, her tail flicking behind her.

"…Seriously?! Again! You can't give it a rest for one day, can you?!" Janet said, before swearing. "Dammit…"

Janet's mom blinked, and gave a bit of a sigh, before leaving the room.

"…The hell was that about?" I blinked.

"…It. Doesn't. Matter." Janet said, flatly.

"You might feel better if you talked about it." I offered. "I know from experience…"

Janet blinked, and gave me a look. "I bet you do." She grimaced.
We were silent for a moment, before Janet sighed. "…Mom wants me to get a transformation."

I stared at her. "…What."

"…Exactly what I said. My mom wants me to be a changeling. …Only thing is… I don't know whether or not if I want to be one myself." She glanced down at the floor, closing her eyes, as she leaned over a little, folding her arms over her knees.

"…Can't you just tell her no?"

"She's my mom. And like I said, I don't know if I want to yet. …On one hand… I like myself just the way I am. On the other—I don't want to disappoint my mom."

I could kinda get where she was coming from. "…My parents didn't want me to change at a young age." I said.

"Oh?"

"…They wanted me to be old enough to make an informed decision. She didn't know it'd be forced on me, and neither did I, but… Here I am, I guess."

"I can see where you're coming from. …Did you WANT a change?"

I paused for a moment. "…There were times where I wanted to stand out. To be different.  But I never wanted to actually DO it. It was… It was too much of a change, you know?"

Janet shrugged. "I guess. …My mom is pretty insistent on it, though. She thinks that Changeling's are… Somehow above normal humans, I guess. I'm not sure. I didn't get into it with her. But she does convey a sense of greater superiority ever since she changed."

"I see…."

"Maybe I should just… Say yes, just to get it over with, you know? I doubt Myria would even grant the change. Though… What would I ever change INTO? I don't want something small if I change. Though I don't want something too drastic either."

"…You shouldn't go through with something just because someone wants you to. You need to choose for yourself."

"If only my mom understood that…"

"…I'm sure she thinks what she's doing is the best for you."

"That's what's so ludicrous about it."
She did have a point. "…Well… What do you think you want to be?"

"…I'm thinking… Something phoenix-ey? Whatever I turn into, I gotta have wings. Might as well get something useful out of all this hassle, you know? …Maybe a dragon." She frowned. "Though, Hawks are kinda cool… Maybe some kinda hybrid of something?"

"You could always stay human."

"…I could, yeah, but… I just… ….I see the world changing around me. All the time, it changes. It never ever stops changing. People, locations, places… Sometimes I feel like I want to get swept up in the changes too, but a part of me feels like it needs something to…" Janet fell silent, not sure how to finish that sentence.

"…Something to anchor to, right?" I suggested.

Janet nodded. "…Yeah."

"…You can always anchor to your changed body, if you need that…"

"…I guess." Janet sighed. "But I'm worried about… Losing myself, if I do."

"So was I." I said, quietly. "…But I think it helped me find myself, a little…"

"…How so?"

"…I'm still me."

Janet blinked. "…I guess it really IS just a bodily change, in the end…"

I nodded, looking down at my body. "…Still, it was a… Pretty drastic one, I gotta admit…"
Janet placed a hand on my shoulder, and patted it gently. "You'll be fine, Naema. I think you're pretty… Resilient."

I smiled a little. "…Thanks. For a while there, I thought it was the worst thing…."

"At least you didn't get changed into a slug."

I snorted. "…Now, I don't think I'd have been able to live through THAT." I snickered.

"I doubt anyone would." Janet chuckled. "…Wanna go for a walk?"

"Sure. A walk where?"

"I just feel like I need some air, you know?" Janet said, smiling gently.

I smiled. "Sure. Let's go."