I opened my eyes slowly, and attempted to sit up. This proved to be one of my worst ideas, as my stitches ripped and I hissed in pain, falling off the bed, which opened more stitches, on my back. I yelled in pain, and more stitches in my throat opened.

Sandi rushed in, and hissed in annoyance. She picked up an odd looking syringe, and stabbed my thigh, then started muttering. I thought she was cussing, at first, but then I realized she was speaking in words I didn't understand, and energy was coiling around her like a snake.

Soon my stitches fixed themselves, and I passed out.

--- ten days later ---

I opened my eyes slowly, and grunted in pain. My arms were tied to the bed, as were my ankles and waist.

Sandi walked over, and undid them. "Don't do anything stupid this time, okay?" She said sternly.

I nodded slowly, and she helped me sit up. "How long was I asleep?" I asked, pulling a tiny amount of crust away from my eyelid.

"10 days. I kept you asleep with herbs, so you could heal." She said.

"Medically induced coma... Okay... And how close am I to walking or running?" I asked.

"Another week or so." She said. "Even with my help, your body was severely damaged, turning in the Old Way." She shook her head.

"Old Way? Turning? Did I miss something?" I asked.

She nodded, helping me stand and sit in a large chair. She sat across from me, and handed me a small clay cup filled with water. "Slowly." She warned.

"Okay... But please explain that." I said, and sipped the water. My throat felt like ice was shredding it, but I powered through it.

When I set the cup down, she nodded. "You turned yourself into a ShapeShifter. A type of Mage that mostly deals with Nature Magic, though it's not uncommon for them to branch out and try other magics. The only difference between you and them, is that you were made this way. They were born. That symbol on your shoulder wasn't there, before, right?" She pointed to something.

I raised an eyebrow, and she knew I couldn't turn my head to look. She held up a sketch of it. "This is what's there. That's the Magical Glyph for 'Into', as in 'Turn Into'."

"Okay... So you're saying killing the Leopard turned me into a Nature Mage?" I asked dubiously.

"No. It's when you killed each other. That's why the Old Way isn't done any longer. It's so risky. You have to die, in sync, with an animal that's trying to kill you. The chances of success... 1 in 3,000 managed it, and their children were Shifters, and theirs, on and on into the centuries since then." She leaned back.

"So... I died?" I asked.

She nodded. "I was there as the breath came back into your body, and your heart began beating. The leopard dissolved, and its essence soaked into your soul. The skin and teeth will make your familiar, if you want. Any questions?"

"Uhm... Okay... Familiars are magical creatures that mages use for guards, right?" I asked.

She blinked. "So you do know about magic."

"No, it's all legend where I'm from. Completely false. But the legends may help me understand some things... Okay... What else? What changed about me? The legends say when you become a Mage or a Wizard, some part of you becomes different."

"We're your eyes always Silver and Gold?" She asked blandly.

"My eyes are Silver." I said.

"Then that's what changed. Your left eye is golden, and your right is pure silver." She said.

I blinked slowly. "Oh."

"Yes. And the mark, of course... And I think that's it, unless you weren't physically fit before... How Did you get that muscular, yet thin?" She pointed with her knuckle at my stomach.

I laughed gently. "Sami whipped me into shape. Ten years of learning Martial Arts and the Philosophies of War and Peace." I said.

She smiled. "Sami is your foster mother?"

I nodded. "She is. And my teacher." I said.

She hummed. "Alright. Well, I'm going to have you try some magic now. It's scientifically based on your level of concentration. Every human being has electricity and magnetic fields in their body. 'Magic' is using those fields to influence things around you. Understand?" She asked, and several objects lifted off the floor, then set themselves back down.

I nodded slowly. "I think it seems like Telekinesis, but real... It's just a theory where I'm from. Here it seems to have been realized..."

She nodded. "Good. You try." She placed my cup on the table.

I hummed and reached into myself, thinking about my electromagnetic field as just that, a field. I extended it, and she flicked my ear. "No, you're just pushing outwards. Good if you're in a pinch and surrounded, but not to pick up a cup. Try again."

I hummed and then pushed again, making my field into a hand they reached and touched the cup.

It shattered explosively, and she raised a hand. The cup out itself back together. "That was better, but you have to realize your own strength. If that had been a person, they'd be dead. Electromagnetic force is nothing to play with. Dial it back, times 10,000."

I nodded and focused a tiny prick of the net into a hand shape, and reached for the cup. I picked it up slowly, and it cracked again, but held.

"A little less, but good for a third try. That's enough for today. I just wanted to be sure you could do it." She said, waving her hand gently. I watched as the magical energy traveled slowly, tapping the cup.

It slowly helped the crack, and I nodded. "Interesting. The precision I must reach is a long way off."

She smiled. "Only healers must be as precise as I. If that is your path, then yes. There are those that could fix that cup from across the planet if they so chose. They are the ones who try to reconfigure atomic structures."

"Alchemy?" I asked.

She blinked.

"Turning lead into gold?" I asked.

She nodded, understanding. "Yes. Like that. But more like, turning Carbon Monoxide into Oxygen Bicarbonate." She shrugged.

I smirked. "At least I know the periodic table."

She laughed. "I guess that's a relief."

A tall man walked in, and grinned. "Ah, he's awake! Hello, boy, I am Chief Sebel." He strode forward and offered a hand.

I gripped his forearm, and nodded. "I am Caleb Johnson." I answered.

He hummed, releasing me. "I see. What were you doing in the woods, Lord Caleb?"

"I was walking off my grief at my Grandmothers passing, and felt the Cat following me. So I tried to get back to my home, but ended up going further into the forest. Now I'm here." I said, shrugging.

He hummed. "I didn't know about a nobles house in my forest..."

"It's not your forest, Sebel. Don't be arrogant. And it's on the far side, isn't it?" Sandi looked at me.

I nodded. "I ran for 6 hours, I walked for 14, I fell for another 2." I chuckled.

She laughed, and the chief chuckled. "I see. Well, the Eye of the Emperor wants to take you to-"

"He's not well enough. He can't even stand!" Sandi snapped.

He blinked. "Oh... I assumed because he was sitting in the chair... I apologize. When you are properly healed, then, the Eye wants to take you to the Capitol to be tested and placed into The College."

"The Eye? I've heard him mentioned before... He's the Emperors Representative in the Village?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yes. He reports all goings-on that the emperor needs to know about, like crop failures and rebellions or invasions or bandits or any number of things."

I nodded. "He's the emperors eyes, okay. I get it. So this college. Does it have someone who can teach me about this... Shapeshifting, thing?" I asked.

The chief blinked. "We have one here, who can tutor you until you're well, so that you don't show up at the college, blind as a newborn. Oh, and this is the Skin and Dagger from your Cat." He sat a bag next to the bed and a Dagger on top.

It was beautifully crafted, the blade as silver as any other blade I'd seen, despite being made of bone. The blade was decorated with leopard spot patterns and symbols, and the handle was made of White glass, covered in more symbols, and they all thrummed with raw power.

I reached a hand for it, and he placed it in my palm. The handle wasn't glass, Like I'd thought. It was bone, melted to remove the marrow and air bubbles. New air was placed in it, and I could tell it was augmented with small slivers of steel.

I looked up. "This is the most beautiful weapon I've ever seen... Please thank the crafter..."

He nodded. "It's also the sharpest, I'd wager. The symbols are magic, I'm told. They supposedly make sure the weapon will never be lost to you, and never break, and never harm you. Here, the sheath." He placed a white Glass sheath in my hand, and I sheathed the blade slowly.

Sandi smiled. "It is a beautiful blade. Well crafted. All ShapeShifters have one. It's important, for some reason. Your teacher will reveal more. I am not privy to the why, it's a Secret of the Shifters." She sighed.

I went to place it on my belt, and realized I wasn't wearing one. I was only wearing a pair of shorts, not unlike boxers.

I looked back up. "Uhm... Where are my clothes?" I asked.

She pointed at the pile next to my bed. "Any more questions?" She asked.

"Uhm, one... Why are you dressed like that?" I gestured vaguely to the fact that she wore a long skirt and very loose length of cloth that barely covered her chest, and nothing else.

She blinked. "Why? Well, Because this is what I have, and it's either this or nothing? Would you prefer nothing?" She smirked.

The chief stood. "And that's my queue to leave. Good bye, have fun."

I blinked slowly, amused and shocked. "No, I was confused. Where I come from, you would be considered basically naked in that outfit."

She hummed. "I see. No, this is common for clothing in this region. Men wear often what Sebel was wearing, simple loose, billowy pants and perhaps a vest, if they are cold. Other places there are different things, but this is normal here. Most women in this village dress the same." She shrugged.

I nodded. "Okay. I was just confused. Next question... Can I get something to eat?"

--- 5 days later ---

I limped across the field, chasing a small child playfully. He laughed and dodged, and his mother laughed. He was holding my Stellar watch, which was built to detect the current state of the sun and moon, and tell me the time, as well as, on command, the locations of the other planets, and stars. It also showed me the constellations.

After some simple questions, I'd found that there were, in fact, 2 moons, randomly placed around the earth on the same horizontal path. They rarely ever showed up at the same time.

The smaller one was barely big enough to be called a moon, and the bigger was much bigger than our moon, big enough to have a breathable atmosphere and even plant life.

It was also habitable, and seeing as it was close enough that the atmospheres mixed, meaning travel between them was actually really easy, with a plane or Mage, though both were, again, so massively expensive that it wasn't even considered. Animals had been seeded already, by Royal Mages, in an attempt to save certain animals species like Big Cats.

This had obviously been highly successful. (Slight annoyance detected.)

The earths Gravity was a bit skewed, because of this larger moon, resulting in monsoon tides. Luckily, seeing as it had been like this forever, the costal people's apparently knew how to ride the rides out in their floating homes.

There were 2 other planets in the solar System, and only one Sun (thankfully), and each planet was habitable, as all 3 followed closely the same basic orbit around the sun.

Expeditions to other planets had been made successfully, but the outposts were abandoned, mostly. They were now simply hiding places for criminals fleeing the Unified World Council. (Yeah, that's what they were called.)

Sandi had shown me all the astrological charts she had, and I'd calibrated my watch with the new solar system and stars, moving the old ones to a folder marked 'Home'.

She'd been highly interested in my reality's constellations, and I was more than happy to tell her all about them.

The Different planetary model should have led to different calendars, but they had a Twelve Month, 30-31 day calendar as well. The names of the days were different, of course, and the months as well. The moons had a lot of clout on the calendrical scale, as one was big enough to have oxygen on it.

This world had mostly caught up to my world's tech, with magic, and also with mechanics, they just hadn't thought of some of the things we had, and vice versa. For instance, Watches. They existed, but were extreme luxury items, reserved for people who could afford mechanical gadgets.

Having my watch and phone, I gathered, was akin to owning a private Jet and Palace, whereas Magic could do the same things, but most noblemen weren't mages. Owning a pet Mage was also a sign of status, directly on par with owning complicated mechanical instruments.

Moving on, to the present, and Sandi's little friend had become enamored with my watch, and was now playing Keep-Away. His mother had promise to retrieve the watch later, but for now we played.

I tripped, and hit the ground, grunting in pain. My gut had split open again. I covered it before the child saw, smiling falsely to hide my pain, (didn't want him to think he'd hurt me), and stumbled into the Healing Hut.

Sandi growled at me, but I grinned. "Hey, the kid had my watch." I shrugged.

She sighed, and I laughed, coughing. She quickly sewed me up with my own blood, (which I still found awesome and gross at the same time), and then whacked my ear.

"Ow!" I hissed, massaging my poor ear.

"Stop being reckless! You're just extending your recovery time!" She snapped, and helped me up.

"Sorry for being a burden." I smiled.

She sighed. "Get some damn sleep."

"Aye aye, captain." I snickered.