Work Text:
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Fishy Fish
byme
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Summary: Blair discovers a new talent.
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"So what's it gonna be today, Teacher?" Blair plodded behind Wolf, trying to keep him in sight as they made their way through the rough terrain; at least it was downhill. Wolf glanced back, then disappeared behind a boulder and Blair hurried to keep up. He paused momentarily when he heard the roar of water rushing over rocks.
Shit.
He walked farther and saw a river rushing by. He gulped: the riverbed was strewn with huge boulders and tree trunks bigger around than he was. The water leapt and cavorted, falling like rain even as far back on the bank as he stood. He felt his heart quail.
"I don't see any way across," he said, looking at Wolf and hoping for some mercy.
Wolf looked back and morphed into Blair's double, dressed today in breechclout and leather chaps, tough boots on his feet and with his long hair gathered into a braid.
"You don't need to cross," he said, taking Blair's elbow and leading him toward the edge of the riverbank.
"Oh," Blair smiled in relief. "Good.
"Ahhhhh!"
Wolf/Blair waited until Blair surfaced in the fast moving water, then jumped in after him.
Blair broke fingernails trying to hang onto boulders, only to be tumbled farther downstream. He grabbed at a tree trunk and almost died when it suddenly moved and tried to bash him on the head as it slid between two boulders and into the fray. He finally smashed into a rock and hung on, gasping for breath and hoping his ribs were only bruised, not broken.
"Become one with the river or die," Wolf/Blair called as he floated past, then he dove under the surface and disappeared.
"Become one with the river?" Blair shouted just as he lost his grip and the current pulled him under.
He opened his eyes to find himself face to face with a large fish, to be precise, a large salmon.
Salmon looked coldly at him, sizing him up. "Breathe," he said, turning and slapping Blair hard in the face with his tail.
Reflexively, Blair took a deep breath, the water flowing down his throat and sweet oxygen flowing over his gills. His eyes widened; I don't have gills! But he did. And fins. And a tail. And the long, sleek body of a salmon.
Wow!
Elated, he sped through the white water, leaping and jumping, heading upstream with hundreds of other salmon. It was wonderful. It was fantastic. He wanted to stay like this forever! He leapt out the water for the sheer joy of it.
After several exhausting hours, the quick river broadened out, slowing lazily between wide banks. Blair swam lazily too, glad for the respite after his wild ride. Abruptly, he was flying through the air, gasping for breath. Then he felt a horrible pain as something tore into him. He rolled his eyes and with his last breath, he saw a set of jaws full of sharp teeth coming toward him.
He lived in the belly of a bear. He was in a bear. Blair knew he should be panicking, but somehow he just didn't seem to have the energy. He felt his chewed body parts breaking down, giving life and energy to the bear. Then he was the bear, flowing though its veins, muscles, and bones. He reached the bear's brain and saw out of its eyes, saw the world as the great bear saw it; it was a bit blurry and he wished for his glasses, but, of course, bears do not wear glasses. He sniffed the air and smelled what a bear could smell; which was quite a lot. He listened and heard what a bear could hear; all the wonderful sounds of nature, even down to the lowliest grub. He filled his lungs with air and growled, deep and long, because he could, and wasn't that something.
He was a bear. Along with many other bears, he was in a wide river, fishing for salmon, taking his fill of nature's bounty and getting the much-needed calories he would use to survive the long winter months ahead. He slapped his huge paw into the water, catching another salmon in his claws, bringing it up and taking it to the shore to rip it apart and devour it. Life was good.
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Blair woke with a gasp, sitting straight up in bed. He was a bear! No. He was Blair Sandburg, sometime grad student, guide, and apprentice to a very sneaky Wolf. He frowned. Then he laughed. He had just had his first taste of shape shifting. Him! Blair Sandburg. He had been -- he had actually 'been' a salmon and then a bear. He flumped back against his pillows and stared at the ceiling, a wide, goofy grin on his face.
Shape shifting.
Wow!
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End
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Notes: Shape shifting is supposed to be one of the skills of the shaman or magician. Of course, Blair is on the spirit plane, not the physical. He's still a neophyte, after all.
Plenty of Blair owies. Well, nobody said learning the way of the shaman was painless, or safe.
Disclaimer: Sadly, still not mine.
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Begun: June 21, 2022
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