Ophelia was driving her suv while Diamond sat in the passenger seat and Aziza was in the back seat squeezed between several shopping bags. Diamond was slightly regretting bringing Ophelia shopping as she often went overboard, though on other hand Diamond knew little about fashion.
“Did we have to buy so much? I kind of feel bad you bought me all these clothes,” Aziza asked as she looked behind her as the back of the suv was full of shopping bags. “Also where are we heading to now?”
Diamond looked into the rearview mirror to see Aziza, “You will need the clothes once you start shifting.” Diamond said before her gaze returned to looking out the front window. “We’re heading to my parent’s home, it’s better suited for training rather than my small apartment.”
“Alright, but rea…” Aziza trailed off as she looked out the window to see them heading north. Aziza knew the further north you went in this city the richer the household you found and they were already passing by well off areas and heading to very well off areas.
“You shouldn’t feel too guilty about money,” Ophelia said as they pulled up to a big iron gate with a crow logo on top of it. “What we have spent on you is a drop in the bucket for Diamond, even more so since she barely spends any money she gets.” Ophelia rolled down the window once the suv was completely stopped and leaned her head out the window to intercom, “Hello Brutus, it’s me Ophelia, here drop someone you know.”
“Open the gate, Brutus,” Diamond said as she leaned over to be seen on the camera too. There was a clicking sound and the gate slowly started to open but having slight jerking motion from the ice on it.
“Welcome home, Lady Diamond, please be patient. We haven't fully cleared the ice from the front gate’s track.” An older male’s voice said and Diamond rexed back in her seat.
“Thank you, Brutus Darling.” Ophelia said before she closed the window and waited for the gate to be fully opened. Once the gate was fully open Ophelia drove down the long driveway that cleared once but covered by fallen snow again.
Aziza's eyes widened in seeing a neo-paldian mansion and the marble walling was even whiter than the snow on the ground. The driveway loop in front of the house and there is a clear grass circle in the middle of the loop and the suv stopped at the stairs that lead to the front door. “Come on, Aziza,” Diamond said as she got out of the suv and Aziza followed suit.
Ophelia rolled down her window, “Have fun,” Ophelia said to Aziza and the front door opened up. Two dies dressed in bck polo shirts with white trim on the colr and pockets, matching bck pants and dress shoes. “Hello Jessie and Kelly.” The suv truck opened up and the dies walked past Aziza and Diamond to the suv.
“Come along, Aziza.” Diamond called to Aziza and Aziza hurried up the stairs to catch up to Diamond. Once inside an older gentleman greeted them and he looked at your old fashion victorian era butler you often saw in movies. “Brutus, is the underground gym free and cleaned?”
“Yes, Lady Diamond,” Brutus said and handed Diamond a keycard. “We freshly cleaned and repaired it after your parents used it st night.” Diamond sighed before motioning Aziza to follow her, “Oh Brutus, this is Aziza Smith, she’s my ward and this is the first day of her life as werebeast. Aziza, this is Brutus Barcy, he is the head butler of this house.”
“Welcome to the Silvervine Manor, Lady Aziza.” Brutus said while giving Aziza a small bow and Aziza gave him a nod. “Your father has left to sort out a mess at one of his pubs and your mother is asleep in their room.” Diamond nodded and the maids came in with bags of clothing. “We will have these cleaned and ready to wear once you are ready to leave.”
“Thank you, Brutus,” Diamond said and motioned for Aziza to follow her. Diamond led Aziza to an elevator on the first floor and between a twin staircase in the lobby. Diamond opened the doors with a keycard that was given to her and both of them entered the elevator.
Diamond clicked the button down and Aziza felt the elevator to head down for a minute before the doors opened up. It opened up to a rge room the size of a football field and she could see running track nes painted on the ground. Where grass would normally be set up in the track field instead was a gym equipment area with weights and area for yoga. “This is all underground and why all underground?” Aziza asked as she stepped out of the elevator with Diamond.
“To train without holding back,” Diamond said simply as she walked towards the yoga area. On her way she took off her coat and tossed it onto the weight rack then kicked off her shoes at the foot of the same weight rack. “We will start with stretching and yoga to get your body ready for shifting before anything else.”
“Yoga is no stranger to me.” Aziza said and Diamond looked over her shoulder to her. “Remember ultra hippy parents, yoga was one of the things they made me do. Though I couldn’t st long due to not having the stamina for it.”
“That’s not going to be a problem now.” Diamond said. “Show me what you can do so I know what I'm working with.” Aziza nodded and removed the sweater she was wearing as she was wearing a sports bra under it.
“Alright, here I go.” Aziza said and stepped onto one of the yoga mats set up. Aziza started with simple poses like downward facing dog and cat-cow stretch and as warmed up her poses became more intermediate poses like camel pose and boat pose. Aziza was in the zone as she started to do more advanced moves and not noticed Diamond walked off to grab a white board on wheels.
“Guess I don’t have to do anything to start minor shifting training.” Diamond said as Aziza in a scorpion pose and Diamond started to write on the white board. Aziza moved out of the pose she was currently in and sat on the yoga mat with her legs crossed. “Normally children training their shifting ability don’t have to learn yoga or stretch exercises as their muscles are a lot more flexible and growing.”
“Allowing their bodies to get used to transforming faster than say someone trying to shift for the first time when they are past their teenage years.” Another woman’s voice said from behind the whiteboard and caused Diamond to pause from her writing. The owner of the voice came round the board and the hair on the back of Aziza’s neck stood up once seeing the woman, Aziza’s instincts were telling her to run.
The woman looked to be five feet and five inches tall and she looked to be native american descended with her dark reddish brown skin. Her wild mane looked to be a darker brown but with light hitting it at the right angle made her hair shine like gold. Her eyes were the same piercing bright silver as Diamonds and unlike Diamond’s eyes that look looking through you, instead they were locked on you and just waiting to pounce and eat you.
The clothes she was wearing were a pair of unbuttoned jeans that had been ripped into shorts, a marine blue tube top, a white dress shirt with hem ripped apart and sleeves rolled up, and around her neck 5 cw bone neckce with purple beads. With her revealing clothing showed off her muscur and curved body, and on both of her forearms having four cw scarring. On her face she had scarred like Diamond, she had a deep scar that ran from the top left side of her forehead and to the bottom right of her cheek, and small nick scar on top left lip.
“I thought you were asleep, mother,” Diamond said, causing Mrs. Silvervine to look slightly hurt from being called ‘mother’. “Also stop staring at Aziza, she’s looking to bolt.”
“I didn’t mean to, Dia,” Mrs. Silvervine said with a bit of pout and gaze was now on Diamond. “What did I do to upset you, Dia?” Aziza felt slightly at ease now that Mrs. Silvervine’s eyes were no longer on her.
“You haven’t seen Tu-” Diamond stopped when Mrs. Silvervine put a finger on Diamond’s lips and Aziza noticed that her nails were bck and looked more like cws. Diamond stared into her mother’s eyes and Mrs. Silvervine stared back into Diamond’s eyes.
“I’ve been busy for a month and I was going to see her tonight.” Mrs. Silvervine said with a sadden tone and her sharp gaze softened towards Diamond. Diamond kept staring for a second before letting out sighed and turned to board to return writing something on the board. “So, are you going to start off by getting her to shift her ears?”
“Yes, it won’t cause any damage if it fails and will get her true scent out.” Diamond said as she put down the dry erase marker she was using. “Giving us an idea what animal she is and what muscles we need to work on the most.” Aziza raised her hand and both of them looked at her. “Yes?”
“My true scent and why does it matter which animal I am?” Aziza asked as she lowered her hand. The two Silvervine gnced at each other before Diamond moved her shirt up to show her abs. Aziza finally took note that both Diamond and her mother had eight pack abs and Diamond’s scars on her abs.
“Large types like bears, tigers, and lions need to work out all our muscles as our transformation takes a lot out of us, and if not proper training can cause damage over time that can be permitted.” Mrs.Silvervine said as Diamond put her shirt back down. “While medium types like wolves, hyenas, and jaguar need less work out on muscles. The luckiest grouping are the small types like foxes, jackals, and bobcats who don't really need to work their muscles at all.”
“Your current scent is that of a human but once you shift even a small amount, your true scent will come out.” Diamond said as Mrs. Silvervine went to sit in front of Aziza. “As well, your true senses will wake up too. Better sense of smell, hearing, and sight than what you currently have working.”
“Now rex, put your hands on her knees and close your eyes.” Mrs. Silvervine said and Aziza did as she was told. “Breath in and breathe out slowly, focus on my voice.” Aziza focuses on Mrs. Silvervine’s soft and motherly voice, making Aziza feel even more rexed.
Suddenly a rge and loud roaring came behind Aziza making her eyes shoot open and scream out of her fear before falling forward fast forward into Mrs. Silvervine’s chest. “Looks like we got ears and a tail from that reaction.”
Aziza looked up to see Mrs. Silvervine holding a phone and looked back to see where the roaring came from, it was Diamond standing behind her. “Really, did you have to do that?” Aziza asked with a deep red blush as she stood up.
“Yes,” Both Diamond and Mrs. Silvervine said at the same time and Mrs. Silvervine stood up to show Aziza the phone. Aziza sighed as she watched herself get jump scared but she noticed a few seconds of the video she had a pair of animal ears and a tail. “Jackal ears and a tail, that isn’t a surprise if she is from the Sahara cn from Egypt, higher rate jackals come from there.” Aziza looked to Diamond to ask a question. “We will talk about cns after we talk about shifting.”
“I direct you to view the board.” Mrs. Silvervine said while moving out of the way. Aziza looked at the white board to see the words human, semi-form, and true form written on it. Under human form written was warrior, druid, and berserker while semi-form was missing berserker, and true form was missing druid under it.
“These are the three forms that werebeast can transform into, but there limit depending on which css we are.” Diamond expins before going to the board to tap the warrior. “Warrior is a term for normal werebeast like me and you, we can transform into all three forms, and the only special power we have is from our cn power. We know you're a warrior css because the other two would’ve meant you would be found sooner.” Aziza nodded and started to raise her hand but stopped when Mrs. Silvervine went to the board to point at the druid.
“Druids can not transform into true form, instead we have magical powers of nature.” Mrs. Silvervine said and put up her other hand to show small lightning sparks coming off her hand. “We can control weather and other magics connected to nature but with every use of magic there can be backsh to the user.” Aziza’s were now locked on the sparks coming off Mrs. Silvervine’s finger tips. “If you were a druid, your magic would manifest and make other druids alert of you, like a homing beacon.”
“Last is berserker, at the state I found you in…well let’s just say your first meat meal could’ve been your adopted family.” Diamond said as she grabbed the marker she was using before. “Berserker css is now seen as a mental illness and most cases are in specialized mental hospitals made for berserkers.” Aziza noticed slight sadness in Mrs. Silvervine when the berserker css was being talked and Diamond started to draw arrows and times to type.
“A normal werebeast can shift into their semi-form in a minute and from semi-form to true form in the same amount of time. While human straight to true form would take five minutes.” Mrs. Silvervine expined what Diamond was drawing. “Of course the more battle hardened beings can do a form of selective transform, which is like trying to hold a dial that snaps to the next setting.” Mrs. Silvervine side eyeing Diamond and Diamond let out a sigh before removing the rest of the clothing, and hair estic she was wearing.
Aziza’s eyes locked on Diamond as she started to shift and was surprised as she kept growing bigger and hairier. When Diamond stopped growing she turned around to show Aziza her semi-form and Aziza could guess Diamond was seven feet tall now. The only spots not covered in fur was her face, chest, abdomen, and anywhere Diamond had scarring. “This is what a full semi-form looks like.” Diamond said with a deeper tone and almost sounded like a low growl.
“As you can see, rge animal types grow a lot bigger into their semi-form.” Mrs. Silvervine as Diamond shifted back to her human form. “While medium and small animal types grow a little or not at all then shift into their semi-forms.” Diamond got dressed after fully transforming into human form and erased what was on the board.
“Next up is cns.” Diamond said as she wrote the word ‘Cn’ on the board. “Cns are broken up by genetic features and special passive or active power that only show up in said cn.” Diamond wrote down ‘Sahara’ on the board. “The Sahara cn have bright orange eyes and the power to understand any oral nguage that they hear. They can not speak the nguage but only understand what the person is saying in their own tongue.”
“The Sahara Cn were once many smaller cns that were from Africa and Asia. Around the 9th century they came together as one cn due to finding no true difference between them, even having the same cn power.” Mrs. Silvervine expined as Diamond went to put her jeans back on. “This will also expin there is culture difference before within cns, like Sahara cn members from Egypt tattoo under their left eye at.”
“So that's why you know my cn by a gnce.” Aziza said as she touched under her left eye. “What cn ar-” Aziza was cut off from Diamond tossed Aziza’s sweater into her face.
“Get dressed, css is over for now and I’m hungry,” Diamond said as she grabbed her coat to throw over her shoulder, “Brutus probably had the kitchen cook something up the moment we went down.”
“I did smell something being cooked up while I was coming down from the bedroom.” Mrs. Silvervine chimed as Aziza finished putting on her sweater. “An early supper sounds good to me.” The three went to the elevator and once inside Mrs. Silvervine leaned to Aziza. “Sorry, I didn’t introduce myself, I’m Amaris Silvervine, just call me Amaris~”
“A-Alright,” Aziza said nervously as a strange smell came off Amaris but Aziza noticed Diamond had the same strange smell coming off her too. The smell was overwhelming and made Aziza start feeling greatly uneasy and wanting to run. Next Aziza thought she started hearing a heartbeat in her ear but quickly realized the beats were too slow and loud to be her own.
Diamond and Amaris started to notice Aziza start shaking and go in cold sweat, “Aziza, deep breathes through your mouth and once the door opens rush outside.” Diamond expined as both Diamond and Amaris moved to have her back against the wall. Aziza was gripping her chest and as she tried her best to make deep breaths through her mouth as Diamond said to do.
When the doors of the elevator opened up Aziza burst into a full sprint to the front doors and she only stopped running when she was at the bottom of the stairs. Aziza closed her eyes before falling to her knees and started to breathe deeply and slowly before her heart stopped racing. Aziza slowly opened her eyes and she couldn’t expin what she was seeing but best she described it was the most beautiful night sky she had ever seen.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Diamond's voice came from the left of her and Aziza looked to Diamond. “I’m sorry, I forgot your sense would be deyed.” Aziza started to notice Diamond’s face had smaller scars not noticeable to human eyes but even with all scars Diamond looked quite beautiful. “Stuff you in an enclosed space with two apex werebeasts, not my best choice.”
“The smell was so strong, and it…” Aziza paused as closed her eyes. “Smelt like a strong metallic scent, almost a mixture of copper and iron.” When Aziza opened her eyes and looked at Diamond and Diamond had a slight guilty look on her face for a second before shifting back to her resting stoic face. “Dia-”
“It’s best if you don’t get in an enclosed space until you have more control of your new senses.” Diamond said as she held a hand to Aziza. Aziza stared at Diamond for a second before taking her hand and standing up with Diamond’s help. “Come on, let’s go inside.”
Diamond led Aziza back inside her and when Diamond took a step into the lobby an orange blurry tackled Diamond. Diamond didn’t fully give in to what tackle her and caught whatever tackle her. “So who do we have here?” Diamond asked with the softest and motherly voice that Aziza had never heard come from Diamond and even Diamond’s face softened up.
The thing that had tackled Diamond was a young four foot tall teenage girl, who looked to be fourteen years old, and she buried her face into Diamond’s chest. Her hair was silky bck that was tied in a long loose braid, which reached her butt, and the end of the braid tip was bright blonde. She was wearing bright orange with bck accent hoodie that was too big on her, the sleeves were long enough hiding her hands in them, and under that hoodie she was wearing a forest green with gold accent modern ao dai with white pants. The young dy moved her head to look up to Diamond and showed both she looked to be of Asian descent and the same bright silver eyes as Diamond and Amaris’s eyes, and her bangs had the same blond tips as her braid. “Big Sis, I’m home!” The girl chuffed as Diamond nuzzled the top of the young girl’s head.
“Welcome home, Tullia.” Diamond whispered as she gave Tullia a small squeeze.Tullia let out a giggle but when she noticed Aziza, Tullia’s eyes widened and her hair slightly puffed up. Her reaction reminded Aziza of the cat puffing up and Tullia moved in Diamond arms so Diamond was between the two. Diamond chuckled as she petted Tullia’s head, “Tullia is very shy with new people.” Diamond said and Aziza now only could see Tullia poking one eye around Diamond’s chest to stare at Aziza and under Tullia’s tired eyes were wide bck ‘V’ shape like markings.
“Tullia~” Amaris’ voice called to Tullia as she stood in the middle of the lobby and arms open to her. In a fsh of orange the young dy tackle hugged like she did with Diamond and Amaris hugged her back happily. Aziza noticed on Amaris’ right hand, that was petting Tullia’s head, was missing her pinky finger all the way down to the knuckle.
“I figure she would be a good surprise to get after being away, Sweetie.” A male voice with a light irish accent said from the left side of the lobby. Standing in the archway on the left stood a six foot tall caucasian man with bright green eyes, and a scar running across the bridge of his nose. His hair was dark brown, on his face he had goatee and sideburns, and his ears were pointed. The clothes he wore were a white dress shirt, deep red tie around his neck, dark blue vest, pair of bck jeans, bck leather dress shoes, and on top of his head was bck ft cap.
“Best surprise, Darling,” Amaris said as she nuzzled the top of Tullia’s head and Tullia made small chuffing sounds. “And just in time for dinner.” Diamond nodded and Aziza looked slightly confused from seeing Mr. Silvervine.
“Well that is good timing,” Mr. Silvervine said as he took off his hat and revealed his right brow had a small scar on the end of it. “I can have a conversation with your ward, since it looks like she has a question or two.” Aziza felt slightly uneasy from his gaze, and she also found how handsome he was, it was very off putting to her. “Don’t worry, Miss. Smith, I don’t bite.”
“Not that hard,” Diamond said under her breath and normally wouldn’t have been heard but everyone in the room had a heightened sense of hearing.
They moved into a rge dining room and were clearly made to have a rge long table to seat more people but instead the setup was a rge round table that could seat at least eight people around it.
Tullia was seated between Mr. Silvervine and Amaris while Diamond sat on the other side of Amaris, and Aziza was seated beside Mr. Silvervine. In front of everyone, except for Mr. Silvervine, was a pte with a knife and fork and Aziza was confused why Mr. Silvervine didn’t have a pte set up, instead just a wine gss.
“So, Miss. Smith or would you prefer Aziza? What are you studying to become in college?” Mr.Silvervine asked as he leaned back in his chair. “Also you can call me Anderson if that would make you feel more comfortable.” A maid came into the room with a wine bottle and started to uncork it.
“Aziza is fine,” Aziza said as she shifted in her seat, still feeling nervous. “I was pnning to study as a doc-” Aziza cut off from smelling that strong copper and iron smell once more, making her feel sick, and only started when a maid started to fill Anderson’s wine cup.
Anderson noticed right away and waved away the maid then covered the top of his wine cup. “I’m sorry, I should have waited until the food was in the room.” Anderson said and the smell was gone when Anderson covered the top of the wine gss with his hand. Aziza was confused why wine would make her feel sick but as she eyed the wine she noticed the wine was a lot thicker looking and deep red than normal wine. “Guessing my daughter and wife didn’t tell you about vampires yet?”
“Vampires!?” Aziza squeaked as her eyes flickered to look into Anderson’s eyes and noticed his pupil was slited. Aziza started to realize what she was smelling was blood and she looked towards Diamond.
“I was focusing on what she was first, since there is less historical drama to werebeasts.” Diamond said as food started to be brought into the room and put in the center of the table.
The food was in rge amounts and looked like a holiday feast with a rge turkey. Anderson moved his hand from the wine css, the smell from the food covered up the smell of blood, and he took a sip from the wine gss. “We will cover vampires at a ter date, for now we will eat some food.” Diamond pulled off a turkey leg to put on her pte while Amaris and Tullia joined in tearing into the turkey.
“You eat and I will do little to expin our little family.” Anderson said as he gnced over to Amaris and she smirked back with a small wink. “First off you should know, vampires and werebeast can not cross breed.” Aziza paused as she dished up some slices of cooked ham onto her pte and clicked in her brain why Diamond and Tullia didn’t have any of Anderson’s features. “That fact doesn’t change anything, these thr-two girls are my daughters.”
Aziza was about to ask about his slip up but felt a chill going down her spine and looked to Diamond to see her giving Aziza a cold stare. “I understand that my adopted parents are still my parents.” Aziza said as she felt Diamond’s stare no longer on her.
“Why don’t you two stay for the night and in the morning I can drop you at the shop.” Anderson said to Diamond and Diamond gnced at Aziza then back to Anderson. “I know Tullia would love to spend time with you and your mother.”
Diamond sighed, “Twist my rubber arm, alright.” Diamond said as she waved her turkey leg in her hand. “Now enough talk, it’s time to eat.”
Aziza was set up in the guest bedroom in the mansion, alone, and she was restless moving in the rge bed she was ying in. Tullia had asked for Diamond to sleep in the same room as her and Aziza just watched Diamond’s will crumble from Tullia’s puppy eyes. Aziza sat up in bed and slipped out of it to put on slippers she got today from the cloth shopping spree with Diamond and Ophelia.
Aziza was wearing a new pair of blue sleep pants and white loose tank top from the same shopping spree. Aziza no longer needed to turn on the light as she saw fine in the darkened room, grabbed a dark gray sleeping robe before she walked out into the hallway.
In the hallway there were no lights on and Aziza tried her best to keep a quiet walk as she wandered around the rge mansion. She was mindlessly wondering as she processed all what happened to her in the st twenty four hours and she would pause when she saw a maid and paused as well in seeing her. Each time Aziza would stare before returning to walking and the maids would return to their own duties.
Aziza didn’t know how long she was walking before finding herself standing in front of a rge window door that led out to the second floor balcony, which allowed a good view of the full moon. She opened one of the doors, the rush of cold air hit her but it didn’t faze her as much as before in her weaker state. Aziza noticed that the balcony was cleared of snow and she walked to the stone railing to lean on as she looked to the moon.
“Couldn’t sleep?” Amaris’ voice asked behind Aziza and Aziza looked behind her to see Amaris. Aziza slightly blushed seeing Amaris was only in a pair of blue panties and her bone neckce.
“Yes,” Aziza said quickly before returning to looking up to the moon. “So is going walking around only in panties a werebeast thing or a Silvervine thing?” Amaris let out a small chuckle from Aziza’s question.
“It’s a personal choice,” Amaris said as she walked to stand beside Aziza and looked to the moon. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Aziza silently nodded and Amaris paused before gently petting the top of Aziza’s head. “I know the feeling is out of pce in the new world.” Aziza looked at Amaris and saw the gentle and soothing silver eyes of Amaris. “I know this is all overwhelming but just take one step at a time and you will be okay.”
“Thank you for the advice.” Aziza said as Amaris moved some of Aziza’s messy bangs out of her face. “I forgot to ask, what cn are your family from.”
Amaris paused a bit then smiled, “One more piece of advice, if anyone cims to be part of Luna Cn, they are lying because there are only three members of that cn.” Amaris said as her eyes shined in the moonlight even brighter than normal. “And all three of them are currently under this home.” Aziza was about to open her mouth to ask questions but stopped herself and nodded to Amaris’ words. “Now don’t stay up for too long, little one, alright?”
“Yes, Amaris.” Aziza said as Amaris smiled before walking back inside. Aziza looked back to the moon before letting out a sigh, “One step at a time, Aziza, one step at a time.”
