“Myra, come here!” called Mother. I had to obey her, even though my soul and spirit told me not to. You see, I am a Pooka, and my mother is simply human, as is my father. They gave me my physical form. My spiritual form was given to me by the gods. My spiritual form is a combination of all animals known to man, and some who are unknown to man. To make my life that much easier, Pookas don’t age. So whatever age you find out that you are one, you stay that age for the rest of your life. I was 16 when I found out. Life gust keeps getting better, because I’m also a nobleman’s daughter. Yeah, my life is so easy.

“Myra, what is taking you so long?” called my mother, again. She can’t know what I am, and if she did, well I would have to be executed, or at least they would try to. Pookas don’t die…easily. We can lose our spirit, and then commit suicide, but we can’t just die from illness, or from a wound, or be run over and killed. We can’t die because we are made to be virtually indestructible; you never know what animals or mystical beasts will show up so we need the extra armor, and the steel-like bones.

“Myra, if you don’t come down this instant, I will personally come up there and get you down here.” Why can’t she just do as told? A person could write a book on all the things that she does wrong. Yes, a Pooka can read people’s minds, and they can tell the future. Because of my parent’s ignorance to who and what I am, I had to be extra careful around them. I had just finished morphing from a little tabby cat, and into my usual self, who had short dark hair and unnervingly electric blue eyes, when my father came in. I pretended to be fixing my hair, when he said, “Sweetie, you look lovely.” And thought to himself, That girl’s a beauty; not going to be hard marrying her off. I wonder if she knows that she is going to be meeting a contestant. Hope not, her sister was almost impossible to get married. It took me months to get her a proper man. But Myra, she’s got a chance with the fellow. And his father is one of my fellow Lords.
I saw it then, my future. In the future I will be getting married to some faceless man. He was young, and our fathers were shaking hands. The father was faceless too, but he was dressed as a nobleman, like Father. Oh, by the way, I only see the future based on others choices, or my own. Then it changed, no marriage, and I am a wild Pooka. If only that could happen then I would able to be who I am meant to be. My father snapped me back to reality.

“Sweetheart, you need to come. If you don’t, your mother will kill you.” I knew that he was serious, because his thoughts were mirroring the same words. “Oh, all right. I’ll come.”

Then I got a scent. Because of the animal spirit Pooka’s can smell, hear, and see really well. I hadn’t noticed that I had stopped moving. “Myra, come on. You’re going to make us late.” I hesitated, this time on purpose, “Father, what’s going on? You and Mother are being very quiet. Tell me, please!” I gave him my best puppy look, which was very good, considering that I can turn into a puppy. “Sweetheart, you’ll find out soon enough.” When I was down stairs, Mother yelled, “Well there you are, little miss ‘I’ll make everyone wait for-’” She came into the living room and cut off mid sentence. She just gawked at my face, she didn’t even ask for me to turn around. “Mother…” I started. “Good, gods. Look at you! You’re, you’re, you’re…” she couldn’t find the words, now if I hadn’t been able to read minds I would have started fighting, and for show I did, but inside her head, I heard the words, Beautiful, but not her sister, she tried today at least. That’s really all a mother can hope fore. Then the sentence came out, “You’re so beautiful toning, Myra. Thank you for putting in some effort.” I could only smirk. She had never thought of me as a beauty before. Then I quickly wiped away the fake tears as the scent came back. It was disgustingly sweet, almost like honeysuckles, a soft musk, and the smell that comes after rain storms. It also smelt like burning embers, or a fire when it was dying in the hearth.

I wrinkled my nose. Then I heard someone think, Ew, it smells like the woods, but warm also. Not a werewolf or a Faerie. What is it? I know that I’ve smelled it before. Oh, we’re here. Good, now I can see what this smell is. That’s when I noticed that the male’s smell was like a human: warm but cold at the same time. It was not nearly as warm as my own scent.

Because of my ability to turn into animals, I can’t get cold. I could stand outside in the middle of a snowstorm and be perfectly fine.

There was a knock at the door. Mother opened the door and said, “Welcome. Myra, come in here.” The scent became more identifiable, and I classified it as Dragon Rider. Great, a Dragon Rider that is in the same room as a Pooka, this will go over well. Ever since the creation of Time, Dragon Riders have hated Pookas. Pookas love tricking other ‘mythical’ beings because, well they can’t kill us, but we can kill them!

I heard him think to me, What are you, you know what I am, so what are you. I can read minds as well, so just think the answer. I thought to him, I’m a Pooka, or shape shifter. There aren’t many of us, only six or sever per country, that’s why you didn’t recognize the scent. We are extremely rare…I don’t even have a pack yet, only me. I instantly regretted thinking that.

A woman in a dark blue dress, I assume his mother, said, “Dear, where did you get that dress? It is absolutely stunning on you.” I was wearing my favorite jade green dress. “Oh, um, do you like it? Thank you, I actually made it.” My mother gave me the props for that one.
“Oh, yes. Myra always makes her own clothing. Never buys it, she is quite the wonder with a nettle and thread. I had her stitch up this very dress, and she made it look like new…” and so the conversation progressed. The fathers talked about politics, wars, and their personal views on the newly crowned king. That left the boy and I alone to talk together. “So, did you have any idea that this was going to happen?”

“No, I don’t even know your name.”

“Oh, Myra…the Pooka…I guess.”

He laughed, “Well then Myra, nice to meet you. I am Alec.” He was tall, about a foot taller than me, which was roughly six feet, maybe five eleven. He had deep blue eyes that looked like pools of pure water, and black hair; I couldn’t place his nationality.

After dinner, I asked mother if Alec and I could go for a walk in the woods. She told me to bundle up, and for us not to be out to late. When we were outside, my true spirit overtook me, and as soon as we were in the woods, I took off my coat, muff, gloves, and petticoat, until I was only in my white frock. It’s a short frock, only goes down to my knees so under it I had gray tight trousers and the ribbon in my hair.

Alec looked startled but quickly shook it off. “So, Myra the Pooka, what shall we do?” I though, then said, “How about we see your dragon?” He smiled then started incanting, “Tie ne nay oh ti hu. Tie ne nay-ay-ay-ay toh he nu.” I smiled; it was like the Pooka spell, different words but same general idea. Alec smiled, and whispered, “Get ready, Pooka, cause here comes Keara.” I gasped when a beautiful beast came down from what seemed the heavens. She had pale blue scales that shimmered like blue rainbows in the light, and her eyes were as black as midnight and shone like a river in the dark. Her head had to be about the size of Alec’s whole body. “Hey Pooka, want to go for a ride?” He smirked while he asked the question. “No, I don’t do riding. Yet I’ll gladly fly along side you,” was my cool answer. “Oh, yeah, what as?” he shot back, obviously expecting some sort of wild animal. This boy was in way over his head with me. “Hmm,” I thought. “I think that a griffin or phoenix would do. Which one?” I asked back. He looked shocked for a moment, then chuckled, “How about something simple, like a hawk or eagle, Pooka?”

“Nah, I think that I’ll go with the griffin. I really don’t want to be a bright red bird that could burst into flame whenever I want.” This time he laughed full out, not bothering to hide it. “Yeah I guess that would be a problem.”

He cooed at the dragon, her head bent down and he scampered onto her back. It was the oddest thing I had ever seen. Here was Keara, a giant dragon who could easily eat Alec, but yet she simply obeyed his orders, like a well trained hunting dog, weird. He looked at me like he was expecting me to explode and have a griffin standing in my place. He is so immature, and likes to read too many fairy tails.

I felt the familiar sense of heat spread through my body. I focused on my goal; becoming a griffin. I shuddered, feeling wings grow from my back, my head became more pointed and was placed directly over my arms, which had become my front talons. My legs became my flanks, and a tail quickly sprouted from between them.

The look on Alec’s face was priceless.

“Whoa…can you talk?”

My head shook no.

“Oh, okay…lets go!”

He chanted again, the words different but I really didn’t pay much attention. I was soaring through the air when I felt something bump my left hind paw. Not knowing who and what it was, I kicked it, and a voice muttered, “Gee thanks Myra.” I snorted, not letting him into my head. He grumbled.

The takeoff was the most interesting part of the flight. We talked in our heads occasionally, but mostly we raced, I won twice, him three times. I argued that he had the larger wingspan; he said to make mine larger. I didn’t. When we touched down around where we took off from, I morphed back and asked him a question that I had been pondering over for the last few minuets. “Hey Alec?”

“Yeah, Myra?”

“Are your parents also Dragon Riders? Or are they normal mortals like mine?”

He paused for a moment. “My dad is a Rider, my mom has no idea this world exists. She just thinks that when dad and I are arguing, it’s because I don’t want to get married yet and he wants me to. It’s actually because having two alpha males in one house usually ends up with the son dead and the father mourning. Do your parents have any idea?”

“No, part of me wishes that they did know it would make my life so much easier. But then they’d have to deal with an immortal daughter who can become any animal, real or mythical, and have to deal with my territory fights. Fighting off Faeries, Vampires, and Lykens are hard enough. Just think if I have to fight off another Pooka? I would die or become the other’s slave.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I don’t have my Marks yet, I’m only a tenderfoot.”

“A what?”

“A tenderfoot. It’s like the, I dunno…child Pooka.”

“Oh, weird”

“Yeah, it often tends to be so.”

We stopped walking. I could feel his eyes in my back. I quickly excused myself to change back into my stifling dress. When I came back he smiled slightly at me and I ran from him around the tree area. He snuck up behind me and captured me, whispering gently, “I guess you’re mine now, Pooka.” As he pulled away he smiled. I felt his hand gently brush mine and I held it is a small grasp. He spun me around to face him and lifted his free hand to my cheek. I quickly leaned into his touch. His hand guided my face to his then all of a sudden a shrill voice called out to us. We quickly broke apart from the almost kiss. It was my mother. “Myra, Alec, your fathers have agreed on your marriage!” We smiled to one another, and both thought the same thing, Welcome to the craziest family ever. As soon as she was gone, he stole a quick touch with his lips to mine and we hurried into my home to celebrate.