Learning. [Leia & Rose]

Leia sat beside a tree, awaiting Rose to come from her lessons to help her and to teach her. She held herself as there was a cold breeze and the window blew the water making ripples.

Rose hurried down to the lake carrying a thick red book with a print of black ivy leaves curling around the cover. She spotted Leia by a tree and made her way over to her. "Ready?" she whispered into Leia's ear when she crept up behind her.

"GOD!.." She jumped and smiled, "Yeah, ready as ever!" She grinned standing up.

"Heehee, a little habit of mine! Ok," she said in a more serious tone while she opened the book and lay it out on the grass for Leia to see. She tucked her hair behind her ears as she craned over, reading the passages she had read through so many times in the past year. "It's not the usual way of learning, I don't think, but it certainly works. It is very powerful and you might not get it on your first try, I almost lost it after a week as well. It's old magic and it's hard to control. Are you still sure?"

"Yes, positive..." She beemed at Rose.

"Good." She ran her finger along the first line of text. It was difficult to read as the words had a curious habit of moving ever so slightly to make you lose your place. The language was also difficult to read - it had taken almost a month to translate some of the oldest pieces in the book. She began to read from the text, "Close your eyes and...look into...no, concentrate on the...beat...sorry, mood and...hang on...state of mind of the animal you wish to become. Not stereotypes," she added. "Think of a cat you know and like and think of how that cat would feel and act if it were human, then reverse it so you can imagine the human as a cat. It's tricky, but cats are domestic animals so it is a bit easier with them than, say, a wolf."

"Ok then.." Leia closed her eyes and concentrated on her being a cat, her body became less tence as she got more into thought.

Rose regarded her for a moment. "Good, good, you're getting it." She turned back to the book and began to read the second paragraph. "Next...look at...umm...sorry, visualise yourself in the animal's body. You must see your feet as...paws and so on...see your ears...and your...greater, no, magnified senses." She looked over to Leia to see if she was following the instructions.

She visualised herself as a black cat, seeing her paws and her tail curling around her legs then her ears...

Turning back to the book, Rose spotted the picture which always made her laugh. It was a sketch of a man with cat's ears and a squirrel's tail. Underneath, the caption read: Do not look like this. She smirked and continued to read. "Try to transport yourself into the area...size, sorry, of the animal...concentrate hard. Also," Rose added, "Don't open your eyes until I say. Then capture the voice of the animal...no, wait, the sounds of the animal." Rose turned to Leia, wondering if she would manage to transform on her first time.

Leia still her her eyes firmly shut, not opening them she let the thoughts of a cat go through her head still with other thoughts of how she would look like and the size of the cat itself..She slowly started to transform as a tail appears behind her with ears popping through her black hair, soon she appeared as a cat at Rose's feet, she still had her eyes shut so she didnt know that she was a cat..

Rose smiled with glee and clapped her hands a little bit. "Open your eyes!"

Leia opened her eyes and gave a little smirk and walked around her tickerling her legs.

"Now, can you hear me properly? Miaow twice if you can..." Rose checked, making sure the transformation had gone correctly. She would have hated it if something awful had happened to Leia.

As Leia opened her mouth all that came out was.."Mioaw...Mioaw..." She purred(Spelling?) with happiness and ran, clawing up to the tree next to Rose so she could be in eye sight of her.

"Excellent! Now for the change-back. It's a bit easier." She leant over the book again and began to read the last paragraph. "To recover...no, return, to your human form you must simply do the backwards, umm, sorry the reverse."

Leia concentrated hard on the reverse, she turned into her human form, then falling out of the tree. "Ouch..." She hugged Rose. "Thank you soooo much!! Thats amasing!" She grinned.

Rose smiled at her, pleased to be a good teacher. "Just keep practising. The change might be slow at first, but keep trying and you'll get quicker so soon you can do it like this." She took one step forwards and transformed during it, then took another step and changed back just as quickly. Then, thinking of her recent problems she added, "Don't change too often once you've got the hang of it though; just once a week or when you need it..."

"Thank you...yeah Ill practice every day!" She grinned, closing her eyes with only cat ears appearing. "Ok I really need to practice.."