One day, Miraldis arrived with reinforcements in the form of a blue dragonfly of similar size to himself, and this one hovered for some time before trusting me enough to land. He was leaner than Miraldis and much fiercer looking. He, also, could not believe that I could see his true dragon form, or that I could hear him speak; and it was not until I had given a minutely detailed description of him that he begrudgingly admitted that it was possible. That Miraldis was attempting to teach me magic was met with derision and no small disdain toward me, and Miraldis got quite huffy in his defence of us both. It was very interesting to observe that personality conflicts were not relegated only to the human race. The Blue demanded to see what I could do, but of course, apart from answering all kinds of theory questions correctly, I was unable to show him any practical magic. This only reinforced his derision, and he flew off leaving Miraldis and me in a huff. I felt terrible for letting Miraldis down after all his patience, and envied him his ability to literally "blow off steam'.

The whole episode did have one good effect, in that I became very determined to prove that Miraldis' faith in me was not misplaced, and I lived and breathed magical theories until I was dreaming about them. I hate to admit that until now,I had rather floated through life with only the minimum effort needed to be adequate in the endeavors that I undertook , so all this intense effort was completely out of character for me and not easily adjusted to. One of the things I was learning besides theories though was patience and that was not a bad thing. Miraldis and I were becoming friends as well, and if he was any measure of his kind, I was beginning to feel very honored to have been chosen to help. There have been many accounts of dragons in fable and legend and one is never sure what is real. Well......until meeting Miraldis, I had assumed that dragons were NOT real. WRONG !!!

However, one morning a few days after the visit from the Blue, Miraldis cocked his head and said with much excitement... "Didsst Hear That?"

I looked about but could see nothing unusual and shook my head.

"What Wass It That Thou Wass Jusst Doing?"he asked.

I had been trying to visualise a bird's skeleton overlaying a human one in an attempt to see how they differed, and had somehow got the two layers into some kind of juxtaposition when Miraldis interrupted me.

"What was it you heard?" I asked.

"Magic,When Done Correctly,Dosst Give A Chime." he said, "And I Didsst Hear The Chimess, Though Faintly."

"Well..... let me try again then." I replied.....not letting myself believe that at last I was actually doing something right. Again, I visualised the overlapping skeletons, almost like placing one mylar sheet on top of another, but with more of a 3-D effect. I am constantly amazed at what the mind can actually do. Here I was, mentally overlapping drawings and learning magic!!! Me, who had never really tried very hard at anything in my life!!! At any rate, when I got the layers lined up again, they seemed to click into place and at the same time I also heard a faint chime, rather similar to the tiny wind chimes on my deck at home.

"When Thou Cansst Do That Quickly And Without Thought, We Cansst Begin To Learn The Wordss." Miraldis said with a big grin on his pointed little face. And, so, for the next few days I did it over and over until I could do it in my sleep, and the faster I got it, the louder the chiming noise was. I asked Miraldis if it was noticeable to others and he said he didn't think so unless they were tuned into the mage lines. This brought up a whole new discussion on where the mage lines were and how apparent they actually were to people as a whole. Since neither of us knew the answers, we didn't dwell on it long and got back to the practicing.

At the end of the next day, Miraldis pronounced that he thought I was ready for the words that would accompany the overlapping and thus make the shape shift reality. The thought was a little frightening and I said as much, but he assured me that he would be the watcher and that he could counteract any mistakes that I made. He said that we would begin the next morning after a good night's sleep and food. I was sure that I would not be able to sleep or eat but I did both and was ready for the next adventure.

I was quite nervous about the next bit, but needn't have been, since all we did was practice pronunciation. Lessons again!! Very early in the day, Miraldis demonstrated the importance of perfect pronunciation. Using a small pebble as a prop,he said a word and the thing changed instantly to a very pretty blue flower. Another word changed it back to its original form. Then he said what I thought was the first word again,but this time the pebble became a large black beetle who stood up and looked quite put out. Another word, and the beetle became the pebble again. I wondered if the pebble had alter personas or if Miraldis was doing pure magic. Either way, I was very impressed, and the graphic lesson made me realize how important it was to get things absolutely correct.

I also learned that it was very important to be able to see the words clearly in my mind, for there would be times when I would not be able to speak out loud. I would need to be able to see the words in order to return to my own form from the bird form...... that is if I ever actually did manage to get that accomplished. There were an awful lot of rules in this section of lessons but that was probably a good thing. I certainly did not want to change into something horrid and not be able to get back again. At any rate.....when Miraldis was confident that I could both say and see the words correctly, he said we could try a shape shift the next day, but not on myself just yet. First we would do the pebble thing just to make sure and that was fine with me.

What was definitely NOT so fine the next day, was that Miraldis showed up trailing the Blue again. Why the dratted dragon couldn't have waited until we had this thing down pat I don't know!!! Blue's personality had not sweetened in the least and the result was that I messed up a word that I had said perfectly the day before and the pebble changed into a worm. I felt very bad for Miraldis even though I was a little annoyed with him for bringing the Blue, for I knew that he desparately wanted the Blue to eat his words from the last visit. My nervousness and blundering did not help, especially since Miraldis had to step in and change the poor worm back.

Turning my back to them both, I concentrated as hard as I could, said the word,and heard the chime, and watched the pebble shimmer into the blue flower. I stared at it with relief, and crossing my fingers, changed it back again.Twice more both ways and I ventured a glance toward the dragons. The Blue gave me a grudging nod and said he hoped Miraldis had some idea of what he was doing and flew away.

Miraldis could contain himself no longer, and blew out some sparks and smoke and jumping to my shoulder gave me what must pass for a dragon kiss, though it felt rather like a fried ear to me. At any rate.......we congratulated each other and after a few more shifts just to be sure, we called it a day. Before he left, however, Miraldis made me solemly promise that I would definitely not practice on my own just yet. No problem there !!

The next day dawned rainy and cold and miserable and I thought "Isn't that just lovely!!! And here I am primed for real magic today!!" I assumed that Miraldis would not show up and was very pleased and surprised to hear him tapping on the window at mid-morning.

"Dosst Thou Be Afraid Of Rain Dropss?" he asked. I should have known better!!!

"No, of course not!!" I replied "Only, I didn't think you would want to practice in the wet."

"We Can Of Coursse, But Thou Hasst A Lovely Dry Den Here, Sso Why Not Do Thiss Indoorss."

Then the little dragon began to look around and I wondered if this was the first time he had been in a house. He seemed fascinated with everything and we spent the rest of the morning examining everything in the cottage. Some things like the toaster and the blender had him rolling around on the floor in laughter and things like the TV and computer fascinated him. He was amazed and likened them to magic and I suppose in a way those things are a kind of magic. He examined the books in the small library, and told me about the great libraries of the world, where he had studied in other times, and again I wondered just how old the little dragon was.

"How old are you, then?"

"In Your Yearss, The Number Would Be Sseven Hundredss." He said a bit proudly. "In My Yearss, I Am Sstill A Little .... Barely Yet Weaned From My Motherss."

"Mothers???"

"In My Clanss, The Motherss Lay Their Eggss In Community Nesstss. Then All The Motherss Care For The Hatchlingss .... We Have Many Motherss ...... All The Motherss Have Many Babiess. It Iss The Besst Way For Learning .....And The Motherss Can Have Their Own Timess For Resst Or Travel. Not All The Clanss Do Sso ..... Ssome Clanss Have One Mother For All Babiess, And Thosse Babiess Do Not Know Their Own Motherss. There Iss No Ssensse Of Family For Thesse Babiess. Thesse Babiess Grow Like A Mob With Few Individual Ambitionss Or Ideass. It Iss Not A Good Way. In Ssome Clanss, The Motherss Care For Only Their Own Babiess And In Thesse Clanss, The Babiess Do Fight Amongsst Themsselvess For Each One Believess Himsself To Be The Only One Of Importance. The Blue Iss From Ssuch A Clan."

We spent the rest of the day comparing our cultures and generally learning more about each other's interests. And I showed him how to work the computer, though with his claws, he had problems working the keys. We went places on the internet that I had never dreamed where there and explored ancient books and places. The thing is a marvel of information if you know where to look and every new thing leads down another path of knowledge until we were quite lost and the day was over. Tomorrow, then, we agreed, would be the best time to start the transformations.