His skin ripples with changes, first covered in short gray fur, then pale white skin, then bright blue feathers. He could be anything he wished, but right then he didn’t know what he wished to be.
His bright blue feathers ripple once more, becoming a soft gold. His arms shift their positions slightly and his small fingers spread back into the birdlike wings that his arms become, leaving his thumb and other three fingers to grasp things if he needed too. His body above the waist is covered in feathers of a soft golden color, but below that the feathers change into hard golden scales, the gold color a sharp brightness compared to the softness of his feathers. A scaled tail swishes behind him, tipped with long, hair-fine blades of a sharp black color that seems to cut into the eyes.
His head flows into the wickedly hooked beak of an eagle while his eyes move to the sides, slanting as they go. They shine a brilliant red gold in all light, but the hard sharpness of the beak and the cruel slant of the eyes make him seem cold, uncaring, harsh, when in truth his eyes are filled with warmth. A crest of soft gold feathers stands atop his feathered head and goes down his neck, almost turning into a mane of feathers.
He opens his beak and lets out a cry of joy as his wing/arms beat repeatedly, taking him into the air with an ease that any bird would envy. He brings his feet up to his body to reduce the drag on the air they produce, his talons glinting wickedly in the reflected light of the sun, just as sharp of a black as the blades on the end of his tail.
This was his favorite pure form, a creature that existed only in the universe of Kamangrai, a place where anything was possible. It was known as a Kakalean, or Star Placer. In this form his name was Kkwrea, but he had other names.
He wasn’t a shapeshifter, no matter people said. Shapeshifters… they had their own way of changing their bodies, mostly into beings that already existed. He, though, was a Falci, otherwise known as a Form Flow-er. He could take anything from any animal in existence on any world, say the shape of a white tiger, and merge it with anything he wanted, like maybe insect antennas or mandibles. Some of his forms had been very… exotic, to say the least.
He had a preference for flying forms, and while the Kakalaen might be his favorite pure form, he had many others that were combinations of many different animals. Bird winged great cats, bat winged horse-like creature with a head of a dragon, horned horse/great cat mixes with giant ribbed wings, and many more had been some of his original shapes. There was nothing really like them anywhere, although some creatures came close on occasion.
Age was a relative thing, where he was concerned. He had long ago forgotten his age or when he was born, and just told people that he was old. Forms held no special meaning either, they were just clothes for the soul to try on, in some cases at will. His true form was long forgotten, alongside with his true parents and his entire family, which were most likely long dead. His family was, of course, whoever he chose to hang with at that time, for good or bad.
Kkwrea grins, he disliked serious subjects with a passion that was seemingly reserved for the Falci alone. Fights were another thing altogether, though, since they were fun and, when done for just the sake of fun, weren’t serious in the least. But discussions about life and death and family and wars, those were entirely too serious for all Falci except for one, but then again, that one had been raised as a responsible ruler before he even learned that he was Falci.
Falci are strange beings, more like perpetual children than ageless shapeshifters. It is a rare thing that could ever make a Falci calm down and be serious, but they often never go far with their pranks, just far enough to get a laugh out of it. It’s something about the way they are raised. Most find out when they are children what they are, and they refuse to be taught anything the minute they find out about it.
With a carefulness born of practice, Kkwrea, still grinning, reaches a foot down and wraps his talons around a water balloon. Then he reaches his other foot down and grabs hold of a bag of other water balloons, these filled with various colors of paint.
With powerful beats of his wings, he lifts himself up into the air, being careful about the water balloons.
He soars high above the crowded city streets of the place he had decided to play his usual jokes on. Looking down, his eyes focus on the tiny, antlike beings. Then, with an easy flick of his talons, he shreds the bag and sends the paint filled water balloons plummeting down to the buildings and people below. Clenching his other foot, he shreds the water balloon apart and watches as the water falls down, gaining speed quickly and scattering into millions of droplets.
Kkwrea circles around the area, watching the beings below scatter. He starts laughing as he sees buildings, cars, and people get splattered with strange colors of paint, many of them so bright as too be blinding.
Spinning around, his tail flicks and the sharp blades on the tip ripple strangely until they dull, as do his talons. He shrieks his defiance to the black shape hurtling down at him and quickly coming into focus. Another Falci from the strange shape, almost leopard like body, but with the long fangs of a saber-toothed tiger and with feathers instead of fur, all in black. The Falci’s wide, batlike wings spread and his paws reach out with claws sheathed, trying to knock Kkwrea out of the sky.
Kkwrea powers upwards, gaining yards and yards of altitude within seconds. The black Falci follows him closely and deftly twists out of the way as Kkwrea lunges at him. He twists, though, trapping the other Falci’s wings, just to be thrown off. Within seconds they are wrestling in midair as they plummet towards the ground, the gleam of laughter in both of their eyes.
At the last second they break away and land gracefully on the ground, ignoring the stares that the humans direct at them.
Kkwrea holds out his wing/hand, which is met and covered by a feathered paw. Both leap into the air at the same time and race away, racing each other to nowhere in particular.
The two curl up next to each other, tired after all of the racing around and play fighting that they did. Within instants both are asleep and dreaming peacefully, curled up under a tree.
Hours pass. Kkwrea wakes up first, as usual, and rises, slipping away from his friend quickly, planning more mischief. Mischief was something that all Falci got into, along with trouble.
He looks up at the sky then looks around, still in his Kakalaen form. This world was fairly boring, there was absolutely nothing new in it at all. He reaches out with a winged hand and grabs an invisible thread, twisting and pulling at it until he drags himself into another world.
He leaps into the sky, gaining altitude with ease. Looking down over the landscape, he starts to memorize it as he looks for places to pull pranks on.
With a start he look over his shoulder, noticing a great silver beast flying at him. It wasn’t a Falci, he felt no answering form change to his own dulling of his claws and blades. The creature looked mad, but he didn’t care. With quick, easy movements he twists out of the way of the great beast, his smaller form giving him the advantage of agility.
Laughing, he stays just out of reach of the great creature, amused at this new game, it was rare that any native creatures challenged him, and this one was more fun than any of the others.
The creature, though, didn’t take kindly to his easy dodges and laughter, because it seemed to get madder and madder as the game progressed. With a laughing shrug, Kkwrea turns and dives down towards the ground, his eyes shining with exhilaration as the wind whistles past his head.
Spreading his wings at the last moment, he lands with an easy grace and looks around, quickly noting the signs of habitation. Without hesitation he enters the place, his red gold eyes noting everything. As he comes to a door, he hears voices from within the room.
“This Rave Clutch is a good idea. It’ll definitely be interesting to see what comes out of it.”
His eyes glow with interest, he knew what a rave was, they were always fun. What the person had meant by Rave Clutch he didn’t know, but the mention of the word Rave had made him want to join in.
He enters into the room, looking at the two people with interest, saying, “What’s this Rave Clutch that you’re talking about?”
The first person raises an eyebrow and looks him over then remarks, “It’s a special hatching that we’re having. First we’re going to have the candidates stand on the sands and see what sort of Hathian Dragons hatch and if they bond with the candidates, then we’re going to have a huge party.”
“Sounds fun! Can I join?” Kkwrea asks.
“Sure.”
Kkwrea grins slightly, this might be more fun than even that midair game with the big silver creature.