Back at my new Atlo home, I slouched on my bed, thinking about The Bird Girl. Just what did she mean about 'finding magic in myself'? I thought all magic was literal - in Srrin, you had to recite the spell entirely correctly to get a desired result. Say you were reciting a spell to make your friend fall in love with her crush - if you laughed when doing it, not being serious, the date could go seriously wrong! But here, The Bird Girl was telling me to 'find magic in myself' there was no exact, logical answer to that, so I was confused. But probably what confused me most was the fact she said,

'fly to the sunrise mountain.' I couldn't take a plane there! I puzzled over this for some time, before I finally decided,

'If I am to ever find out the answer, I should probably go to 'the sunrise mountain cliff'."

I was ready to go right now but something inside me told me I shouldn't right now. I decided to trust my instinct and stay home a little while longer, until it was the right time.

************************

It was evening when I felt it. I was brushing my dirty blone, almost brownish hair when I felt something urging me to leave the house now. I ignored this feeling and put my straight hair into a ponytail. But this feeling just continued to urge me to get up and go. I became quite restless all evening as I tried to ignore the feeling but finally, it was night.

"The feeling will go away as I sleep."

I thought to myself, snuggling under my duvet covers comfortably. Then, at 1am in the morning I woke up suddenly. I felt like I really needed to get away from this house right now. Restlessly, I flung the duvet off my bed and got dressed into jeans and a top. I ran out of my room at full speed and ran away from my Atlo home hurriedly. It was still dark when I ran outside but somehow that didn't stop me. I ran far away from my house and continued to run out of my town.

"What in Atlo and Srrin is happening to me? And why am I so energetic all of a sudden?" I panicked. I was terrified as something was making me do things I hadn't done before. I continued to run before I stopped myself at the bottom of a mountain on the edge of my town. As I stood there, breathing heavily, I could feel a very strong instinct telling me to go up the mountain right now. I gazed at the height of the mountain, I knew this feeling would never go away unless I ran up that mountain. Reluctantly, I began to run up the mountain, effortlessly dodging the many rocks and bushes there. I leapt up the mountain quickly and was near the top when I noticed the night sky was getting lighter. Also at that moment, I spotted a cliff edge on the mountainside. I stepped through the heather and braken and approached the rocky mountain cliff. I stepped to the edge of the cliff and saw the orange sun beginning to rise in the pink morning sky over one of the other mountains. Like a slice of orange in pink lemonade. The scenery around the mountains was amazing and for a while I just looked at the beautiful views. I could see another town in the distance and a rushing river flowing through the town and around the mountain range, underneath the cliff I was on and flowing behind the mountain I was on.

"No wonder they call this 'the  sunrise mountain cliff."  I thought to myself. But then I felt pain, a sharp prickly pain. Looking at myself, I noticed my arms were growing! They were getting longer and my fingers were extending too! I stared at my arms in horror - what in Srrin and Atlo was happening to me? My fingers were flattening themselves out and sprouting this brown sort of stuff. I felt a pin-prick sort of pain all over my arms and saw feathers form all over my arms! They were long, thin and all sorts of different shades of brown, chestnut, dirty blonde, blonde, to match my dirty blonde hair. Then I felt pain all over and thought I was about to die. Was this really how I would die? By turning into a bird on a mountain cliff? I closed my eyes as I continued to sprout feathers all over my arms.  After what seemed like a year, the pain in my body finally stopped. I opened my eyes and looked at how I had changed. My top sleeves had been torn apart by my transformation so now it was more of a t-shirt. I was very much lighter now, I could feel it and behind me, just above my bum, I had long, chestnut, brown and blonde tail feathers. My hair flowed out behind me, my hair bobble snapped. My arms were huge now and actually wern't arms - they were wings! Wings with long, chestnut, brown, blonde and dirty blonde feathers. Apart from those differences though, I was not fully bird - the rest of my body was human.  I was so shocked by my transformation that I just stood there on the cliff, my mouth open in a shocked 'o'. I looked into the distance and saw the sun had risen over the mountains now. It bathed the mountains in a golden, magical light. There was only one thought on my mind now:

"OMG."

I felt a cool breeze tickle my neck as I looked around. However, I felt the breeze get stronger, until it was no longer a light breeze but a gust. I suddenly became aware that the wind was pushing me perilously close to the edge of the cliff!

"No!" I gasped, trying to run from the edge of the cliff.

"No no no no no!" I yelled as I struggled against the wind, trying not to blown off the edge. I continued to shriek no, like it was some particularly difficult Srrin spell I was somehow failing to do correctly. But soon, I felt my feet slide off the cliff edge... and I fell, screaming like a banshee.