Midnight Transformation

"Ameranda!" Annabell called from the edge of the woods when she saw me. When I didn't reply she ran towards me, freezing by my side when she saw what I was looking at. "Who's she?" she whispered with a panicked voice, she hated meeting new people.
"A friend," I whispered back, "Go immediately to the castle and tell Queen Shyla 'new girl'. She'll understand what to do."
Annabell ran in the direction of the castle as quickly as she could, and I started walking towards Apples, who hadn't noticed me yet due to the fact that she was looking at her clothes with a shocked expression on her face.
I cleared my throat quietly and she jumped, she was obviously a shifter if she heard it, no human has that good of hearing. "So we meet again," I smiled knowingly at the terrified expression on her face, " We should probably sit down in the grass, I have something to explain that might be hard to understand at first."
We sat down carefully, hard to do in a dress, but she knew how to. She DID seem like a girly girl. "What's going on?" she squeaked, "one second I was getting ready for bed, next thing I knew I was here wearing a ball gown."
I looked at her terrified face and took a deep breath, this is the first time in awhile I've had to explain things to a new shifter. "I have something more to say that will probably shock you more than you already are. Are you ready to hear it?" She nodded slowly so I went on. "Apples, you aren't human."
She looked as if she was about to faint. I understand that feeling, I went through the same thing 7 years ago. "Your something known in this world as a shifter. depending on which way they want to go in life, shifters are either feared or practically worshiped. Their aren't many of us, but enough that people usually know one when they see one."
"Wait," she whispered, "us? You're one too?"
I nodded, "I first shifted when I was 7, I had been told my whole life by my mother about shifters, but I didn't know I was one until I shifted, I always assumed she was the only one in the family."
I stood, brushing the grass off my dress and holding my hand out to her, "I'll explain more at the castle, we have to go see the queen."

~0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

It was a short trek to the castle, my meadow wasn't far at all. Otherwise I would've explained more on the way. I had decided to let her absorb the news a little bit first.
We walked up to the gates, which were heavily guarded right now because of all that's been going on.
"Good afternoon Princess Ameranda," one of the guards smiled, "it's been awhile since we've seen you, I hear you ran into trouble in the woods last night, glad to see your well."
"Thank you Henry, I've been rather busy lately as I'm sure you know."
We passed through the gates with ease, I was well known on the castle grounds, so we weren't stopped. Queen Shyla was standing on the path into the castle with a smile on her face. I smiled back at her. "Hello you highness," I said, "It's been awhile since I've been home."
"It's good to see you again Ameranda, but how many times do I need to tell you to call me Aunt Shyla?" Yes, you read right, the queen is my aunt.
I gave her a hug but quickly stepped back. I was here on business. This particular business standing beside me, looking awkward.
Annabell came down the path and stood behind the Queen, smiling at Apples, who smiled back shyly.
Aunt Shyla, Annabell, this is Apples, who I met earlier today in my time.
Annabell had a confused look on her face. "Isn't she a little old to have just shifted for the first time?"
Aunt Shyla gave her a stern look. "No matter," she said, "It's never to late to start training."
I looked at her. "Who will be her trainer?" I asked.
She smiled, "You of course! I think if your old enough to be the only shifter investigating our current problem, your old enough to train a new girl. Plus, your the best trained shifter in the kingdom right now." She smiled weakly. Right now meaning after my mom-her sister- died 2 years ago.
"Will Annabell be helping me? Or am I doing it on my own?"
"She will be helping with the magic training."
Annabell's eyes lit up, this would be her first time training a new shifter also.
I looked over at Apples. "Let's go to the training grounds," I told her, "I promised you I would explain more." I looked back to my Aunt, "Have Rodney make a new necklace in purple, please" I told her, then grabbed Apples' arm and headed for the training grounds while Annabell followed closely behind.
"Wait," I said stopping, "we should change our clothes." I quickly glanced over Apples. "You look to be about my size, you can borrow something until we get something for you."
We walked inside, quickly going up the stairs, me and Annabell careful not to let Apples fall behind. I opened the door to my large room and stepped inside, immediately going over to my closet to find proper training attire.
I pulled out two pairs of pants, one in black, for Apples, and one in forest green, which is my preference. I only had long sleeved shirts, so that would have to do, luckily it was starting to get colder out anyway. I would have to remember to have Mrs. Aria-our tailor- make shirts with shorter sleeves before spring.
I tossed the clothes to Apples. "Put these on, you can do it in the bathroom if you prefer," I said, pointing to the door to my private bathroom. I took my long dress off quickly, with years of practice, and put on my clothes, going over to the vanity to brush my hair. I looked into the mirror and immediately noticed the scar on my cheek, which I usually tried to cover, some things you have to keep a secret, but I had taken my makeup off earlier before I shifted. I have short light brown hair which only went down to halfway between my shoulders and my jaw, long hair is hard to manage when you travel a lot. My hazel eyes had bags under them. It wasn't too bad, but I should probably skip shifting and go to bed early sometime soon.
I was pulled out of my thoughts by Apples closing the door and coming back into the room. I had probably zoned out for a couple minutes this time. Oh well.
"What exactly is going on?" Apples asked timidly.
I sat down on my bed before answering. Gesturing for her to sit down as well. "Like I said earlier, your a shifter. Every night at midnight you travel back in time, or 'shift' to the middle ages. All shifters have at least a small amount of royal blood in them. I have more than most, but that's because my mother was born into the royal family, that's why the queen is my aunt. I'm sure by now you've noticed that you have better senses than most people. It's easy to figure out every ingredient in a dish with just one bite. You jump at sounds your friends don't hear at all. Almost every perfume is overpowering. If you've ever had an eye test, which I'm not sure you have, the doctor gives you astonished looks, and it's easy to see in the dark. That's all apart of being a shifter.
"I'm sure right before you found yourself in the meadow, a word popped into your mind, and you said it out loud, that word being mortare, and a strange mist surrounded you. That mist was magic. A small portion of your brain controls magic. Enough is stored their to let you travel here and home for a couple days. But not much more." I grabbed my necklace and showed it to her, "This is where most of your magic will be stored. You can use this magic to do all kinds of things. Heal wounds, teleport, even conjure up things out of thin air. Although, all of those use up a lot of magic. To recharge you necklace, you can put it where it will be bathed in moonlight, meaning it's easiest on nights of a full moon, and nearly impossible to do on cloudy nights. You'll get yours later in the day, probably halfway through what I need to teach you today, before magic training."
"What exactly are we going to be doing in training?" Apples asked.
"Today, we will try and find your strengths. I excel in sword fighting, archery, and hand to hand combat, while I'm terrible at horse back riding. We will see if your best at any of these, or if you will be best off fighting with magic. You must learn to fight, for shifters are an important part of the kings army, although I'm more of a detective and spy. You may be also, but we are the people who are in the most danger if we aren't careful.
"We will start with sword fighting today, and possible some archery, then Rodney, the craftsmen, will give you a necklace which will be fully charged. We have a moon replicator for those cloudy nights. We will then start with a basic invisibility spell that you will do on a small object, this is usually the spell shifters and fairies alike start with."
We left my room and headed to the training grounds. I hoped, as my first trainee, she would be a quick learner.