After taking a moment to learn everybody's name Feneon
began to lead one pair at a time into his workshop. The first two were Rayven,
the black haired girl, and her Shoyru. Her Shoyru had some sort of bizarre unpronounceable
name. Feneon quickly decided that he'd give all of them new names once they
were made into hybrids.
Feneon's workroom was quite cluttered. Spell
books were stacked high atop each other on the floor of the room. Papers filled
with his tiny scrawl were scattered about the room, obviously not in any kind
of order. The young wizard liked to think he had some kind of system going on
with his notes, but this was, needless to say, untrue. Small bottles and vials
containing an odd assortment of substances littered the shelves that covered
all four walls. In the centre of the room was a long wooden table buried in
pieces of loose parchment. With one deft swipe of his hand he shoved all of
the papers onto the ground and gestured for the Shoyru to sit down.
Without hesitation the azure coloured Shoyru
flicked her wings gracefully, flitting up on top of the table. Once there she
looked Feneon right in the eye. The wizard saw a layer of hope laid across years
of sorrowing and suffering in the Shoyru's sapphire eyes. She was relying on
him to take those woes away. She was expecting him to take of the situation.
Even though he saw hope in her eyes, he also saw distrust. She knew that he
might not be able to help her, and almost expected it not to work, but she saw
nothing wrong with hoping.
"How will this procedure work?" Rayven
asked, causing the Shoyru and the wizard to break eye contact with each other.
She was peering around the room, taking in her surroundings. She didn't seem
too disgusted with the state of it.
"Well, what happens is, using this potion,
I put the pet into a sound slumber," he said, as he pulled a small purple
vial off the shelf and placed it on the table next to the Blue Shoyru. "Then,
once she is asleep I will simply re-do her genetic make up. Once I'm finished
I will say an incantation and she will make her final transformation. The whole
thing is harmless. As I said before, the only side effects are the obvious physical
changes and complete loss of memory," he explained carefully. "The
whole thing should take less then ten minutes."
Rayven nodded calmly in response, mulling over
the information in her head. Even though she had only just adopted the Shoyru
she already felt a close affinity to her. It was a strange feeling. She'd never
felt like that about anything before. She looked closely at her newly found
friend and waited to see what she had to say.
"Thank you Wizard Feneon. Can we begin?
I do not mean to rush, but I would be happy if this was done with as soon as
possible," the Shoyru stated calmly, again looking Feneon in the eye. "How
much of this do I drink?" she asked as she picked up the vial containing
the purple liquid in her claw, closely examining it.
"Just a drop will do the trick. I'll put
it in a glass of water," the young wizard said as he took the vial from
the Shoyru. He headed towards one of his shelves and scaled it. With a quiet
"A-ha!" he pulled a clear container from the shelf and shuffled back
to the table. He pulled the cork out of the bottle and poured a bit of the purple
liquid into it. The water turned a light shade of violet as Feneon swirled it
around and the two things mixed.
"Here you go," he offered the mixture
to the anxiously awaiting Shoyru. Taking it in both claws she took a little
sip. Her cerulean eyes began to dull slightly as she wavered, she quickly put
the glass down, and a moment later she was curled up in a ball sleeping soundly.
"There. I'll wait a moment before beginning
to make sure she is completely asleep," Feneon said softly. "And before
I start, Is there a particular colour you want her Shoyru parts to be? It will
be much easier to edit the genetics if I also have a colour to go by. I know
it sounds odd, but that's just the way it works. I could do just plain blue,
but it's much harder to tell the unaltered parts to the altered when I'm in
the middle of my work if it's all the same," he shrugged, chuckled slightly,
almost more to himself then Rayven. "I know that probably makes little
sense."
"No, no. I understand. What about Shadow?
I think that would be quite suiting for her," Rayven replied, not taking
her eyes off the slumbering Shoyru. The Shoyru looked so peaceful. So free of
worries. As if all the cares in the world had been lifted from her shoulders.
Rayven smiled inwardly. She was glad for at least once in the Shoyru's life
she wouldn't have to worry about something. Rayven had a feeling that they'd
have plenty to worry about after her transformation.
"I must agree completely. Quite a fine choice."
Feneon grinned and adjusted is droopy wizard's hat on his head. "Shall
we begin?" he asked Rayven. There was a sort of undertone of "This
is your last chance to back out" in his voice.
"Yes, there's no turning back now, is there?"
Rayven asked with an almost quizzical expression on her face. Her eyebrows was
furrowed as she watched the rise and fall of the Shoyru's stomach. There was
something to be said about two people sacrificing normal lives to protect their
homeland. It made Feneon smile.
***
"No, I suppose not. Well, here goes." The wizard closed his eyes,
humming a little tune under his breath. The tune didn't actually do anything,
it was merely for his own entertainment. He liked to have something to occupy
his vocals while he worked. Almost instantly he saw the sleeping blue Shoyru
on the back of his eyelids. Carefully, in his mind, he imagined the Shoyru with
the body of a small human child. The human child had tiny not entirely full
grown Shoyru wings, and black shadowy claws for hands. She possessed a long
black tail, and her hair was the same stark black as Raven's. He worked out
every detail of the image in his mind as he physically moved his hands, grabbing
at thin air and rearranging it in different ways.
Rayven looked on in astonishment. She saw no
change in the Shoyru's appearance yet, but if she hadn't know that Feneon was
a powerful magician she would have thought him a fool with the way he was snatching
at the air and all. Then again, Rayven realised, this whole thing could be a
fluke. He could just be messing with their minds. Some stupid teen playing a
ridiculous prank. Feneon certainly looked young enough to be an adolescent,
but somehow Rayven knew deep down that this was no lie, and that she and her
Shoyru would really make a difference in this whole Meridell War.
In his mind Feneon had finished the "new"
Shoyru. He had everything worked out. Every little detail. From eye colour to
how much hair she had. Now he pictured the hybrid Shoyru, and the original Shoyru
as two separate images. Then, slowly and carefully he merged the two images
in his mind. Once they were clearing on being, one image he opened his eyes
and began an incantation. This time the song did matter. It was a very old spell
he had pulled from an ancient spellbook that had probably been made even before
Meridell had been founded. Without it his magic would work, but not quite as
well. The incantation was sort of like a magical glue. To assure that everything
would "stay together". At the same time he performed odd hand gestures
over the Shoyru, doing little swirls and dips with his arms.
Now the Shoyru was starting to change outwardly.
Her body was stretching, her arms becoming longer and her claws becoming more
finger like. Her tail and wings began to change into a dark shade of black.
Her face paled into a creamy peach colour, and raven coloured hair began to
sprout from her head. It was a very odd think to watch, but Rayven found it
fascinating.
Finally, Feneon gave a sigh of relief. It was
finished. A hybrid shadow Shoyru child was now lying atop the table. Still breathing
softly, as if nothing had happened. Rayven gaped, her eyes glimmering with surprise.
"That, I must admit, was amazing,"
was all she could get out as she went over to the creature's side, looking her
over.
"Why, thank you! Now, can you pick her up?
She might seem like dead weight at the moment, but I think you can manage. Take
her out...this door." He pointed to a door in the back of his workroom.
"It leads into my backyard where there is a cabin much larger then my own.
Await there. The rest will arrive one by one if everything goes accordingly.
Hopefully she should just begin to awake when everybody else is finished. That's
when I'll be there. We'll discuss all the particulars then. Sound all right?"
Feneon took a deep breath after that. Rayven laughed. It would seem that she
would need to get used to his long speeches. He seemed to be able to talk for
quite a bit without taking a breath.
"Great, but what if she awakes before you
get there. I'm sure she'll be quite confused by the whole thing. Especially
if she lost her memory," Rayven said with a crease of her forehead.
"Well. Just tell her what her name is, and
that everything will fall together shortly. Try to keep her entertained, remember,
she is a little girl now." There was a thoughtful look on Feneon's
face, he seemed a tad bit distracted.
"What is her name exactly? I don't think
she should have to keep the old string of numbers and letters before now that
she's not exactly a normal Neopet anymore," Rayven questioned before lifting
up her pet--child--into her arms.
"True. Call her whatever you'd like. Just
be sure to let me know," Feneon said in almost a dismissing sort of voice.
"I'll be sure to tell the others to give their hybrids names too. Now Shoo.
We want to get this done with." He grinned sheepishly at her.
"All right, all right, but before I go.
Her name is Dark Hope, Hope for short.."
"'Dark' hope? How creative," Feneon
teased.
"Oh be quiet," Rayven replied good
naturedly as she lifted up Hope and exited out the back way.
***
Well, that's all of them... Feneon thought with a sigh of relief. There
had been few problems. Some had gotten a bit apprehensive at the last moment
and wanted to back out. Feneon had given them that option, but in the end, they
all had decided to go through with it and were quite impressed with the results.
There were four other hybrids besides Hope. Flame the Fire Aisha Hybrid, kept
by Krystal. Daemon the Silver Kougra hybrid, kept by Robert. Star the Starry
Zafara Hybrid, kept by Melaki. And last, but not least, Flash the electric Eyrie
hybrid kept by Vincent.
Everything was falling into place. Now all that
was left to do was train and teach the hybrids.
Feneon noticed that Teikobou had just padded
into the workroom, the Lupe's deep emotionless orbs stared blankly at him.
"So, how did it go Fen?" he asked in
a monotone voice.
"Quite well Teiko. Quite well. It all begins
tomorrow. The Fate of Meridell rests on the hands of these children and if they
can rise to the occasion."
"Makes you a bit nervous doesn't it?"
Teikobou asked with a ghost of a smile flickering across his lupine face.
"No, not at all Teikobou. Not at all,"
was Feneon's reassured reply.
To be continued... | 
