Imagine yourself in  a room with no walls, where you can see forever, where the very world you live in is a transparent construction that you can see through and mould. This is the world I now live in, yet wish I didn’t. So I’m writing this as a prequel or a prehistory, if you will, to give you a background of my life and loves. My name is R’gtorsht, but don’t worry if you can’t pronounce it, no-one else can so you can just call me Roger.

Well, I don’t suppose you’ve ever heard of the Veusavo people have you?
I didn’t think so.

We’ll just have to fix that then, won’t we? My people are a new race with a population of just 15 and yet we have seven centuries of history behind us. We are not a prolific race, as you can guess. The original starting population was just two. We were created by a mysterious man of small stature who entered our land and forced himself on the Queen of my people and then left. She gave birth to twins, the starting point of our race. I am a third generation Veusanian. My father was called Therdor and he was the leader of my people before me and yet he told us nothing of our heritage, and maybe he honestly didn’t know.

I was brought up to believe that this Earth was the centre of all things, that we were the nexus of the universe, and that we were all alone in reality.

This certain knowledge that we contained led us, and our allied ancestors to expand throughout the solar system in the hopes of stemming the violence and killings happening every day due to the planet’s dwindling resources. This is the world that I was born into, on midsummer’s day at one minute past midnight, I came into the world. At the same time, halfway across the planet, my father received an instantly fatal arrow wound from an assassin. The world lost its greatest asset to gain the greatest potential the universe has ever known, me (even if I do say so myself).

From the time that I first have memory, about the age of three, I was being reared to take the throne of my people. I also remember from about the age  of ten that I decided I was absolutely not going to do this. And so, when I was seventeen, five months before my majority, I stole some cash from my account as I wasn’t allowed to do so without parental supervision and I packed a bag with some essentials and left for the real world.

What a fool I was, thinking that I could just leave all that I had ever been and all that I could become just for rebellion. Well, The first week was great, I signed myself up for Poññe and even though most people thought that school was the worst thing ever invented yet I loved it. I love to learn, to explore new things and to discover the unknown.

I’m getting side-tracked. Anyway, the first week was great, I met new people, made friends with other like-minded souls and spent my money. I used my technical skills to forge myself a false background, non-existent parents and a series of dummy accounts into which money flowed from a series of civilian bank accounts. My tutors had taught me well. Now that I didn’t have to worry about money, I was a bit too conspicuous at school. The big ones started to pester me for money and after a few days of negative answers they decided that since I was so much shorter than them, they could pick on me without fear of retribution.

I put up with their harsh treatment for three weeks, their attitude getting worse and worse. When their abuse escalated to outright violence, my mind snapped. I had had enough, put up with enough and I was NOT going to put up with it any more, and so, as they threw me onto the floor, the room suddenly fell silent and all I could hear was my heartbeat, loud to my ears and my body felt suddenly tingly and I felt my skin stretch and harden and at the same time, a red haze fell across my eyes. I felt a focusing and a broadening of my emotions and knowledge as I leapt to my feet with a.. clatter? Something was definitely wrong but I was too far gone to tell.

I came back to myself several hours later. I found myself several clicks away, huddled up to a tree in a park, covered head to toe in blood. I was shivering and in shock. I was found by the park caretaker who called an ambulance. Fortunately I was back to normal or she might have called the police instead.

The next thing I recall clearly was lying in my bed at the hospital being interviewed by the police. They told me that after I was thrown to the floor, I went perfectly still. I grew larger and my skin grew scaly and red. Huge bat-like wings sprouted out of my back and my fingers grew into foot long claws which summed up the special little package of my subconscious’ design. They then told of the extreme carnage and blood that was generated at my hands.

With this one stroke I had gained the ability to strike back with all that pent-up fury and impotent rage. They told me that two Guardians of the Old Ones were coming as they had found out about my transformation and were going to take me away to the Fortress, an island at the very centre of the continent. This is a stronghold of magicians, sorcerers, summoners and shapeshifters. The elite of each field are trained in that place and it is rumoured that the failures never leave..

I had decided that I wasn’t going and they couldn’t make me because I knew that I wasn’t cut out for it. Just then I heard a clanking noise in the corridor followed by a double clack. I knew what that meant, the Guardians were here! So I sprung out of my bed and felt the now familiar sensation of my bones lengthening and my skin sprouting new things. The to Guardians looked, through the haze like two normal humans, merely eight and a half foot tall, although I myself am only seven foot two so you can see why I was the runt.

As I spread my wings I leapt through the closed window on the fifth floor in a swan dive out the window. I was only a meter out when I felt a sudden prickling and my entire body went completely numb. I fell to the ground in a mixture of a crash and a glide. I lay senseless, unable to move or speak for five minutes until the two guardians came back down the stairs to me.

"Well, well, well. What have we here? I haven’t seen a more devoted youngling in quite a long time." The older looking Guardian said as he walked towards me. The hood of his brown robe was removed and out of one of the pouches at his waist he took a blue powder which he blew in my direction.

It sent me into coughing fits and spasms and before I had finally calmed down, I was back to my normal form and I couldn’t go back. "So are you ready to come with us now? hmm?" asked his female partner.
"All right, all right, I’ll come willingly but I still think that I’ll fail." I replied in a defeated tone of voice.

To which number one replied "You, fail? I very much doubt that. You have the rare blood of the shapeshifter as well as, from the looks of it, the impossibility of magic as well. You are strange and unique and you must come with us as we can help you to master and control your powers so that what happened at your Poññe will never occur again." replied the voice of wisdom number two.

They took me to the local airport from which we caught an aeroplane to the Fortress. The view from the air is absolutely magnificent. It’s hard to explain the wonder and excitement that I felt when I first laid my eyes on the place, and I knew that wherever I went, this place would always be my home, protector and guide.

We landed on a plain bitumen runway. It seemed to be the only piece of technology on the entire island. The castle at the centre of the island which I supposed to be the Fortress to the houses outside, all seemed to be from an age of history, brought forward in time and placed in stasis. Surrounding the whole thing was a strange play of lights in the air and a lush forest on the ground.

My induction ceremony was short and to the point. The Master Summoner Noke led the ceremony as forty fellow newbies and I were formally introduced to the wonders of magic and mystery. During the boring ceremony, my mind and eyes wandered. My eyes suddenly noticed a very interesting subject. The woman in the row before me.. wow, her eyes held such intelligence and yet she still had a look of innocence about her that drew me in and enveloped me in their laughing warmth. There was no-one else in the room except the two of us. Then she saw me and nothing mattered but her. I felt out her questing presence and with the connection of our mind probes, we became effectively one. It was love at first sight and the feeling was mutual. We went on a journey in our minds and it lasted a lifetime yet only an instant.

Melina, for that was her name was as fresh as me to this new-found joy of feeling. I knew that with every up and down, trial and joy in this new life at the Fortress, Melina would be there with me, holding my hand and the steadying rock which would always keep me safe.