The Storm King

Chapter 618: Learning to Crawl

“It’s done?!” Leon exclaimed as he arrived at the copy of the transformation cave in his soul realm, his tone joyous yet tempered by mild apprehension as his fear led him to think he’d misunderstood his Ancestor’s cry.

The Thunderbird was there to greet him at the cave’s mouth in her human form, her bronze features lit up with a smile of victory and pride.

“It is,” the Thunderbird said, and she jumped down the pit. Leon followed her, and once they reached the bottom, the Thunderbird waved her hand and all the enchantment’s runes lit up.

Leon was immediately struck speechless. It was an amazing sight, to be sure, with thousands of runes made of multicolored light slowly drifting through the air, forming and re-forming countless runic patterns above the more permanent runes that had been carved into the floor, but that was only partially the reason for his speechlessness. Rather, the main reason was that the enchantment had been greatly simplified, with enormous sections cut out and replaced, to the point that he could actually follow some parts of the enchantment’s function.

‘Over there is where the blood is stimulated,’ Leon thought as his eyes slid along the breadth of the massive enchantment. ‘And over there is how the stimulated power interacts with the body. And right there are the protections that keep the body from melting into organic sludge under the enchantment’s strain…’

He could follow the enchantments, but the specifics of what they did were largely lost on him since he lacked the proper understanding of the human body and how this magic interacted with it. But he could read at least some of it, and that was more than the nothing he could perceive before.

“It’s… magnificent,” he murmured in amazement as his eyes returned to the Thunderbird.

She grinned in triumph, her work completed weeks earlier than she’d estimated. “Want to try it out?” she asked.

A smile of excitement blossomed across Leon’s face, and he nodded like a child who’d been asked if he wanted his favorite sweet.

“Stand in the center,” the Thunderbird directed, and Leon obliged. “You shouldn’t have to do this every time, but we ought to observe safety for this first run…”

Her next directions were simple, and Leon committed them to memory. He wanted to be able to do this on a whim, if possible, but it involved much channeling of magic power and waiting for certain sections of the enchantment to be activated in sequence, which took some time. Even then, they went slowly. The Thunderbird claimed that she’d tested the enchantment as much as she was able to, and so this initial activation was, itself, just a test to see if it worked. At the slightest sign of anything being wrong, Leon would stop channeling his power, and the enchantment would deactivate, hopefully returning everything to normal.

As he followed his Ancestor’s instructions, Leon could feel the same change happening in his body as he did when he activated the original enchantment in the transformation cave. His skin began to itch, and much of the magic power in his physical body rushed through his veins like a hurricane. He braced himself for pain, but he felt nothing but the shifting of magic power.

And then, he felt himself start to change. He still felt no pain, but he could still feel feathers erupting from his skin, he could still feel his bones warping, he could still feel his muscles growing. It almost felt like undergoing a medical procedure with heavy local anesthesia—his magic power was rooting around in his body, but not a single pain signal was transmitted along his nerves and into his brain.

Another thing he expected was for his draconic heritage to rear its head, but not a single draconic scale appeared along his body. His eyes remained gold, and his feathers a beautiful gold-spotted brown. His body also didn’t grow quite as large as it had during his first transformation, stopping its growth once he’d reached about twice his human height.

On a more esoteric note, he could feel his soul realm flexing under this transformation, but he still felt no pain, and nothing within his soul realm seemed to break. It cost him a great deal of magic power to use this enchantment, but his soul realm was able to weather that drain just fine. He could tell that the Thunderbird was keeping a close eye on everything, though, so he concentrated as much as his subdued anxiety would allow on activating the enchantment.

The entire process took about twenty minutes and had taken perhaps a quarter of all the magic power Leon had built up in his soul realm over the past month and change since his return to the Bull Kingdom. But if it allowed him to transform into the same form as the Thunderbird—if it allowed him to fly—then that was a sacrifice he was more than willing to make. And this was just using the slow and safe method for activating the enchantment—he was confident that with more practice, he’d be able to activate the enchantment faster and more efficiently than this…

Once he was finished, he collapsed upon the floor of the replica of the transformation cave, panting for breath. He may have been willing to use all that power, but it had still taken its toll upon him. His physical body was now that of a massive eagle, twice the size of a modestly tall adult man. His beak was razor-sharp, his talons strong and deadly, his plumage both beautiful and oddly humble at the same time thanks to the brown and gold working together.

“Is that… it?” he gasped.

“Yes,” the Thunderbird practically sang as she skipped over to him and took his face head into her arms, joy radiating from her entire being. “It has been many millions of years since my death, and my Clan has spread my line throughout all the universe. Most, if not all, of humanity can trace their lines back to me, though they bear not a single spark of my power. I had children during my lifetime, and I loved them all with my entire heart, and I loved my grandchildren, and their children, and so on…

“But… this is the first time that I have ever truly felt like I have a successor! Not only my power, but my form has now been passed down! Your Clan will truly be a Thunderbird Clan, not merely one descended from me!”

Her tone suddenly changed as she pulled away from Leon, the smile on her face not quite vanishing, but certainly growing much more subdued.

“I trust you remember how to transform back into your human body?”

Leon hurriedly nodded as he pushed himself back to his feet.

The Thunderbird’s smile grew slightly wider again. “Good, because I won’t be helping you anymore with this. I will not share my instincts with you again. You will learn how to move and fly on your own. You will transform on your own. You will further refine this enchantment on your own. Do you understand?”

Leon grinned, and then for the first time in his life, he slightly lowered his head before her out of more than obligation. “Yes, I do. Ancestor, thank you for all that you’ve done for me. I can’t express my gratitude enough.”

“Maybe you can’t, but don’t let that stop you from trying,” she imperiously said as she transformed into her own avian form and took off, quickly flying back to Leon’s Mind Palace with Leon flying just behind her.

To say that he was excited and nervous would be a severe understatement. He was giddy and anxious in equal measure. The possibilities of this enchantment had him skipping back onto his throne as he touched down, while the potential downsides had him hesitating to fully return to his physical form.

But that hesitation only lasted a moment, and only a few seconds later, he was opening his physical eyes, his Eagle form now sprawled across the debris of the Cradle’s ruins.

Anzu had been dozing nearby, but had stood up in alarm and now stared at Leon, confusion evident even on his aquiline face. But he didn’t seem to be panicking, and slowly trotted over to start nudging at Leon with his beak.

Leon tried to get up, but without the Thunderbird providing him with her instincts and muscle memory, all he was able to accomplish was to flail about on the ground, everything that he knew about how to move his body now working against him. His limbs were completely different, he had so many muscles that he didn’t have before, his center of gravity was fundamentally changed—Leon was barely even able to roll over under his own power, let alone get up or fly.

So, he stopped for a moment. He’d started to instinctively panic and grow increasingly frustrated as his body refused to move as he wanted it to, but he recognized that feeling and slowed down.

‘I’m too hasty,’ he thought as he lay literally spread-eagle on the ground. ‘I need to take this slower… Start small.’

Slowly, he began to test out how his body moved. He tried to raise a wing the same way he’d move his arm, but the muscles in his wing weren’t the same, so while he managed to move it around, it still wasn’t moving as he’d intended it to.

Leon tried to grit his teeth in frustration, but only wound up clicking his beak. He tried to scowl, but his face was too inexpressive.

‘This is harder than I thought it would be,’ he thought after long minutes of trying to get control of his body.

As if she could hear him, the Thunderbird said from his soul realm, [Babies take months to learn how to crawl, let alone how to walk. It shouldn’t take quite as long as you since you have prior experience with fully-controlled movement and a greater ability to focus, but I wouldn’t expect you to be able to fly home today.]

[Ugh, that’s a kick in the balls,] Leon groaned in response. He’d also tried to say those words out loud, but all that came out of his beak were a series of shrill chirps. Everything about him was different, even his vocal tract, so he could no longer make the noises of human language.

[It’s one you should’ve expected,] the Thunderbird said with some amusement. [Take things slow, there’s no rush…]

Leon nodded, but threw himself into trying to learn how to move while in this state.

He took frequent rests as he tried to get his brain to process how to move in such a radically different body, and when he did, he inspected himself. He’d gotten so caught up in his excitement that he’d neglected the most important part of this experiment: evaluating his physical condition.

The first thing he noticed was that his body was still producing magic power at the same rate as his human body did—hells, it even seemed to be greater than his human body since his current form was so much larger and had so much more bone marrow from which mana could be produced—but it seemed that maintaining this avian form cost a measure of magic power that, while not debilitating by any means, did mean that his net gain of magic power was lower by about half than it was in his human form. In other words, it would behoove him to not spend every moment he possibly could in this form, otherwise he’d produce much less magic than he would otherwise.

But he was still looking forward to seeing how well he could fight in this new body. With a new body, that meant he could channel magic in new ways, some that might be stronger and some that might be weaker than his human form. He’d need to run a few tests to find out, but those would have to wait until after he could at least push himself onto his talons without toppling over.

A feat that he wasn’t able to achieve in several hours of flailing about in front of the Cradle, unfortunately.

During his examinations, though, Leon concluded that he was able to transform back into his human form essentially at will simply by cutting off power to the enchantment in his soul realm, a much less involved and mentally taxing process than returning to human form had been following his fight with Jormun.

So, as the sun started to set, Leon transformed back into his human form. His face immediately turned bright red as he realized that he’d torn his clothes to pieces during his transformation, but dressing himself with other clothes from his soul realm was easy. He’d just have to keep in mind that his clothes didn’t transform with him.

Once that was done, he ran a few fingers through Anzu’s feathers comfortingly—the griffin had been remarkably relaxed during the entire transformation, so Leon gave him a quick snack of a pre-roasted rabbit in appreciation. Then, he made a quick check of Anzu’s saddle, mounted up, and steered him into the air. Leon and Anzu circled the Crater Tribe of stone giants once, with Leon imprinting the place into his memory, letting the shame and regret he felt dampen his excitement in the Thunderbird’s success before he left the Crater, unsure when, or if, he would ever return.

If he had his way, he wouldn’t. He couldn’t deny that Nestor had at least some point when he’d said that the giants were slaves, acting only in accordance with the purpose he’d given them upon their creation. He didn’t believe they were still slaves, but they still felt an uncomfortable affinity for his blood. He wanted them to be free, and so he felt like removing himself from their lives was the best thing to do. It might not get rid of those underlying directives, but he hadn’t the skills or the knowledge to know how to do that.

‘Space between us is best,’ Leon thought as he and Anzu turned back west, beginning their return journey to the Bull Kingdom.

As with their journey east, they stopped only when they needed to rest, and they never stopped within human settlements. They took a little longer to reach the capital again, however, for Leon insisted that every time they take a stop, to transform into his avian form and try to learn how to control his body, each transformation requiring less and less magic power.

And he made great progress in learning to move, too—the last stop they made before reaching the capital, Leon managed to stand upon his own talons without toppling over. He was still shaky and constantly had to adjust his balance so flying was still out of the question, but that he was now able to stand in that form meant that he was getting much closer.

He was still a little disappointed. Despite what the Thunderbird had said, he’d at least hoped that he’d be able to make the last leg of their journey himself instead of relying upon Anzu to fly, but it was what it was.

When they landed on his front lawn, only just over a week since he’d left, Elise, Maia, and Valeria already knew that he’d returned thanks to his mental communication with Maia. Elise had clearly been working in the gardens growing some medicinal plants, Valeria had been training, and Maia had been sleeping by the looks of things, but all were happy to see him return.

He just reveled in their presence for a while, and over dinner, he told them of his trip back to the Crater Tribe, and the completion of the transformation enchantment at the end. Of course, everyone wanted to see it, so Leon stripped down, covered his body with some conjured water to preserve his modesty, and went outside where he transformed, to the delight of his lovers.

He was quite grateful that he was able to stay standing the whole time. He didn’t know if he could’ve survived the embarrassment if he’d been able to do little else but flail about on the ground in front of them.

But he was home, and he didn’t make a complete fool of himself, which was about as much as he could possibly hope for.

For the next couple of weeks, he spent all of his free time in his avian form—which wasn’t that much since he still had to spend a significant amount of his waking hours training with his retinue, too. They were all invariably impressed, though in different ways. Anshu was struck silent upon seeing it, while Marcus and Alcander seemed a bit nervous, and Alix was practically bouncing with excitement and admiration.

He couldn’t do nothing but train, though, and so when he needed a break, he’d usually spend it with either Elise, Maia, or Valeria. When he was with Maia, their time was usually spent quietly reading or having sex—for the time being, there were essentially no other activities that they wanted to do when in each other’s presence.

Valeria acted as a strange counter-balance. She wasn’t yet ready for that level of intimacy, but she and Leon still grew increasingly closer and more comfortable with expressing their attraction to the other. They kissed without reservation, and even made out a few times, though never progressing much further beyond that. However, when they trained, it was like all the rest of the world no longer existed, as their attention was focused solely upon the other.

When Leon was with Elise, he also spent a good amount of time making sure she was physically satisfied, but he also spent a lot of time talking with her and helping her out with her garden—which was to say, he spent a lot of time with her in their garden as she supervised the Heaven’s Eye gardeners do the labor. She was incredibly knowledgeable about useful flora, but rarely did she ever have to get her hands dirty—though she never once hesitated or complained when those rare times cropped up. Many of the flowers she was growing, Leon was happy to see, were more specimens of the medicinal flower that he and Valeria had brought back from the Forest of Black and White, Elise having bred the flower with other similar flowers in the months since.

After some tests by Heaven’s Eye’s gardeners these flowers were found to be useful enough for making healing potions that if they were properly processed and used as an ingredient, then they could lower the price of the entire potion by as much as ten percent without a loss of efficacy. Elise assured him that if she could expand their growth, then the cultivation of these flowers could become a reliable source of income for them.

For now, though, they were limited by the size of their garden, and expanding their growing area would likely have to wait until they settled down somewhere in Occulara long-term.

But finally, despite all the other ways his attention was being pulled, after almost a month since the Thunderbird finished modifying the enchantment, Leon managed to figure out how to fly while in his avian form. It required a fairly large amount of wind magic to keep himself steady, but he was able to take off and shakily fly once around the villa before landing.

And he felt like a god, giving off a loud eagle-like shriek as he spread his wings in triumph. His blood sang in joy, his happiness evident even without a human face to express it.

He was finally free of gravity. He could finally fly without the use of equipment or relying upon Anzu.

He’d never felt freer.