Spoiler Alert. This flash fiction takes place after Betrayed (Farseen Chronicles Book 3), and before Revealed (Farseen Chronicles Book 4).

*****

“Do you think we’ll shift?” Delton asked.

Breton stretched his neck but didn’t open his eyes, “We’re suppose to be meditating. It helps control the shift.”

“But do you?”

“No clue,” Breton sighed and opened his eyes. His twin was impetuous and most definitely not given to reflection of any kind. “Everyone, even Lady Tempest, thinks we will, so probably. And if we don’t learn to center ourselves and focus on a specific form we could end up as slugs during the full moon.”

“No way, I’m going to be something cool. A gorkong, or maybe a dragon like Father.”

“Then you should meditate,” Ryan sat down with the twins. “There’s a male shifter that takes the form of a butterfly because he lost his concentration just as he felt the call of the full moon.”

“I’d never do that,” Delton snorted. “Butterfly, how girlie.”

“He’s anything but. However, he got distracted, and now he becomes a butterfly each full moon. Meditation will help you focus on your chosen form, to embrace it.” Ryan closed his eyes and led the twins in their meditation.

“Your instruction has been enlightening,” the twins bowed a few hours later.

Ryan grinned. That was as close as the fae got to a thank you.

“Pizza’s here,” Tempe called from the house.

The twins took off running. No one in the Farseen could make pizza taste right and adults thought it was foolish to open a way just for food. Silly adults.

*****

Lady Nolween stood on the balcony of their new residence, one neither she nor her husband had desired. A home that came with all the trappings of court life, including servants, formal repasts, and intrigues. Now that her husband was the Water Lord of the Western Realm, she found this balcony a pleasant place to reflect and compose her thoughts. The sound of water flowing had always soothed her. And it was the only location where she could be outside and not be seen by anyone who wasn’t in the family’s private chambers.

“What troubles you?” Layton put his arm around Nolween; thankful a dampening spell tempered the roar of the falls.

“The same thing that troubles you. I worry about Breton and Delton and hope they choose wisely.”

Layton snorted, “By the grace of the five realms they will choose more wisely than their father. A dragon makes an impressive statement, but is rather cumbersome if you don’t want the entire court to know when you shift. I’m lucky I’m not moon called.”

“Lady Tempest and Ridge didn’t counsel you?”

“Not on the specifics of what to shift into. Father suggested that a bird for stealth might be a good choice. Mother ran down a list of pros and cons for various creatures but she didn’t make any suggestions. Now that I’m older it makes sense. If she had said ‘don’t shift into a gorkong’ I might have thought so hard about not shifting into it that it would be the very thing I shifted into.”

“And Lord Ellwood?”

“He was strangely silent. He made no comments one way or the other.” Layton tilted his head, “It’s almost time.”

“Father, Mother,” Orton joined them on the balcony. “The triplets are bringing Breton and Delton.”

“Are you going to visit every full moon?” The relief in Nolween’s voice belied the scolding.

“At least until they shift and we see the court’s response,” Kelton replied. He entered with Orton’s triplets as well as the twins in question.

“Mother and Lady Nerina are on their way,” Darious said as he, Terrious and Jarvious laid baskets of food on the table.

When the ladies entered the room, Terrious commented, “This is a lot of food,” before he grabbed an apple as Seotia and Nerina organized the feast.

Seotia laughed, “Lady Tempest assured me the twins will eat more than they already do when they shift. I thought we should be prepared.”

Layton went to stand by his youngest boys, “Concentrate on your chosen form. Do not let your attention wander. Do you feel that?” The urge to shift was intense, even to him, since all three moons were full this evening; but he would wait until the twins shifted, or didn’t, before he flew.

Breton looked up at the moons and felt something shift inside. Not his stomach from all the food his father had forced on him at dinner; but a tingling, and suddenly he was a blue dragon. He looked over at Delton, who was now a red dragon. Since they were in their early teens, their dragon forms were small, whelp size. They wouldn’t reach full adult dragon size for over a hundred years.

The twins watched their father leap off the balcony and shift into his black dragon. He was a full adult dragon and while he could land on a couple of the gables of the residence, he could not shift into his form on a small balcony.

Breton flapped his wings and jumped, hoping he would fly and not fall to his death. He stomach lurched when he dropped a few feet, but then the wind caught his wings and he flew. How glorious.

Delton jumped before he flapped his wings. At first it looked like he wouldn’t get enough lift but after falling about twenty feet, he soared. Heady with his first shift, Delton opened his mouth to laugh and smoke came out. Could he breathe fire? How did one go about the task of breathing fire? He concentrated and opened his mouth and coughed up smoke but nothing more. Fire would require work.

The Western Realm watched, from the residence and the surrounding homes, as their new water lord and his sons flew.