To change who I am

The beach Aayla had just walked onto was absolutely gorgeous, the white sand rolled flawlessly into the ocean, the waves that hit the shore barely made a sound. The light of the sun was dancing off of every small wave, making the oceans surface resemble a brand new diamond. In the distance, she could hear the birds calling, but everything else was quiet.

The young blue haired wizard was all too excited to be in this area alone with Zinneth, a small beach hidden away behind a thick forest, a real hidden paradise! It was a perfect place for her, secluded, and yet still attached to the main sea. She wasted no time in taking off her dress, revealing the pretty blue one piece bathing suit underneath and running straight into the water, not even breaking the waves as her body seemed to immediately become one with the water.

“This feels great! I wonder what I can find out there…”
She said excitedly, diving under the blue waves and swimming deeper and deeper into the water. She had about 15 minutes before she needed to surface again and rest her magic power, for now however, she had no issue ‘breathing’ under water so she continued to go deeper and farther from shore. A nifty little perk that her water body gave her. Zinneth was also swimming easily by her side, small gills were hidden behind the serpents scale, giving the small snake like creature no problem as it kept pace with it’s companion.

The deeper into the water she got, the more wonderful sights she saw. Coral growing from rock formations and pieces of ships or old belongings long since forgotten in the ocean. Small schools of fish swam by her, barely noticing that she was there. She did find it odd however that there were no larger fish nearby… there were no whales, no dolphins, no sharks. In fact… the ocean felt strangely quiet. She stopped swimming as a sense of danger came over her. She looked around herself, left and right, wondering what might be trying to sneak up on her, but never saw anything.

‘How weird…’
She thought to herself cautiously as she swam down to the oceans floor. As soon as her feet touched the sandy bottom she winced and gave a light shriek (which only came out as a mass of bubbles). Her foot slowly began to go tingle and go numb, and so she shook it to get some feeling back into it, bouncing lightly away from where she stepped. Worry started setting in her gut. How did anything hurt her while she was still in her water body form?! She looked down at her foot in a panic and there right where she had stepped was what looked to be a small, round spiky ball. She sighed in relief… it was just a sea urchin… she must have let her guard down long enough for the spikes to prick her foot.

With the sound of her screen, and the light sent of the small amount of blood that escaped her foot, the sense of danger quickly tingled up her spine once again. Something was coming, something big! She pushed off of the sandy bottom of the ocean to try and reach the surface of the water faster, however, she didn't make it far before a very large shark appeared out of the darkness, it’s jaw wide as it attempted to chomp down on her. She gasped as she let her body fully slip into a water state, letting the shark pass directly through her with no problem at all. It didn't seem to bother the animal however as it quickly spun around and came in for another attack. Taking a deep ‘breath’ Aayla raised her arms and launched a water sliver at the sharks body, cutting it slightly in several different places, but still note enough to slow the shark down, at this point even Zenneth was attempting to help by sneaking up on the large creature and biting again and again onto the sharks body.

The shark started to slow down as the attacks and the serpents venom started to do it’s damage, however that didn't stop it from attempting to bite and shred it’s prey. As the shark drew closer to the young girl and opened it’s jaw, an even larger, pure white shark came darting through the shadows, biting down hard on the smaller sharks body.. it seemed to also bite down on the little Zinneth.

“Zinny!”
The young girl cried out, forming a large water bubble in her hands and launching it at the larger shark as it attempted to tear the smaller one to shreds. The bubble was full of oxygen that would normally help a comrade breath under water, but in this case, she hoped it would ‘drown’ the large shark before it had the chance to eat Zinneth. She would have been crying now if her tears didn't just fade into the already salty water.

“Give her back!”
She yelled at the shark as she put all her concentration into the bubble around it’s head and gills. She still felt that impending sense of danger, however her anger at the shark for eating her friend  dulled her sensed towards that warning. Besides, she was facing a large shark wasn't she? That was danger enough!

The shark struggled like mad, letting go of it’s pray while swimming this way and that, trying to get into the water that was just barely within reach. Only whenever Zinneth swam free of the smaller shark, and back towards Aayla did the girl release the air bubble and let the shark take massive gulps of water to fill it’s lungs.

“You’re ok!”
She exclaimed happily as she quickly cupped Zinneth  in her hands and held the small creature close to her. Zinneth let out a soft hiss and a squeak as she rubbed her head re-reassuringly against Aayla’s hand before floating up nearby Aayla’s head.

“Let’s get back to shore while the sharks distracted…”
She told the snake with a light nod as they started to swim their way back towards shore. However, it didn’t take long before the serpent stopped, the fins on her head spiking up menacingly. Aayla stopped just behind the snake, frowning herself as she began to feel that same sense of danger, again… this time though, it wasn’t a shark. Something else was coming… something big judging by the sudden pull and push of the water. It took a lot more strength to pull herself against the tide that seemed to want to drag her deeper into the darker parts of the ocean.

“Whats going on! Even whales don’t create a pull this big!”
She shouted as she pushed hard to reach the surface, however she tried to pull back as a massive, scaly blue form shot passed her. She caught sight of a face, easily twice the length of her body, she also caught sight of this creature opening it mouth to grab at both herself, and the tiny snake floating beside her.

“No! Stop trying to eat my friend!”
She yelled out as a bright light suddenly surrounded her, distracting the large creature from it’s original target, causing it’s head to turn and glare at this interruption. Instead of trying to continue to attack Aayla, the giant animal turned and ate the bewildered shark in one bite. There was a sickening crunch as the sharks blood seeped through the giant creatures teeth. She could hear the creature swallow, and all of a sudden, the shark was gone.

When the light finally faded, Aayla was in her water Serpents Takeover, able to more easily dart up and grab the small serpent, holding it close to her chest as she just narrowly dodged a second strike from the creature. Only now was she able to see what she had come face to face with, and why the water was pulling so hard!

“A DRAGON!?”

She cried out in surprise. She was just barely able to make out the creatures long neck and shoulders, the rest faded into the darkness of the ocean. Terrified, she still held the small snake close, eyeing down the dragon who now seemed intent to eat this her and her friend. She was panting heavily at this point, but that didn’t stop the dragon as it launched it’s head forward again towards the Serpent girl, attempting to swallow her whole, (she did look much more delicious in this form!).However the girl darted upward again and quickly back down, planting her foot against the dragons snout, and using the dragon’s reaction to launch herself upwards towards the surface.

“Smart girl…”
The dragon growled as it pushed itself up after the small girl. What an interesting specimen… a human that nearly looked like a dragon… a small girl ready to fight a dragon for the safety of a slimy Sea Serpent.

“You can’t beat me girl. The water is my home. I am faster, bigger and much stronger. Even a dragon slayer would have a hard time with me.”
The dragon taunted, it’s sneer easily terrifying to the young girl, but aayla didn’t back down.

“I don’t want to beat you… I don’t want you to eat my friend, or me for that matter… I don’t want to fight… but I don’t want to lose, or die.”
She retorted as she let the snake slither up onto the back of her neck. She brought both of her hands forward, two magic circles forming there as a warning. Her hands were shaking so terribly in fear and exhaustion, that the dragon began to laugh loudly, causing the water around them to shake and tremble, irritating the smooth waves from earlier and causing large white caps to form and crash against the far away shores.

“Give me everything you've got kid. If you’re too weak, then I’ll eat you and your friend just as easily as that shark.”
The dragon threatened with another boisterous laugh. Aayla took a deep breath to steady herself and fired off two large waves of ‘sharp’ water.

“Water Slicer!”
She called out as the attack launched forward, however, with the release of so much magic, she was never able to move in time as the dragon’s tail came around and knocked her unconscious without much effort at all.

When she awoke, Aayla was lying flat on her back on the white sandy beach she had originally taken off of. She groaned as she sat up, holding her head as she tried to steady herself, blinking repeatedly to try and take in everything around her. She shrieked as she soon noticed the very large form of a great blue dragon.

“I…It’s you! W…w…why are you… I thought you were…”
She stuttered, unable now to put a full sentence together to really explain what she was feeling or thinking.

“Calm down girl… You’ve shown great bravery facing me the way you did… you knew there was no way you could defeat me, your strength is very little… but you had the trust of the sea, I could sense that from you… not only because you use water magic, not only because you can command the strengths of the Water Serpent, but your kindness towards everything in the ocean… You let that shark survive after you thought it ate your friend, you could have easily killed it with your technique but you didn’t… You are very interesting…Indeed very interesting… Come back with me, into the ocean. Learn everything I have to teach you and just maybe one day, you will be able to defend yourself against me or those like me, become my Dragon Slayer.”

Aayla had been allowed to go back to the guild that evening, by allowed she meant that the dragon now known as Hydrianna had decided not to eat her and train her to become the ext dragon slayer. At first, she didn't understand the concept. but after speakng with the dragon, she grew to understand the nature of slayers. How they came about, what potential their magic held, and why the world would always need wizards like them. It was a lot to take in, and a big decision for her to make. IF she accepted Hydrianna's offer, she would have to leave the Sabertooth guild hall logn enough to train with the dragon... she had no idea how long that would be... She really did want to learn this magic though... she thought that by training with a mystical creature such as a dragon, she could truly become stronger and start protecting her friends when they needed her.

The sleep the young girl had that night was a fitfull one, dreams of her past still haunting her ever thought. However, with the image of herself as a dragon slayer, the dreams went very different. This had been the first night, that her parents survived until the end of the dream, however... the mother in her dream wasn't her human mother... no, instead a large blue, serpant like dragon stool tall over their village, her gleaming blue eyes shining only like the jewels in her pendant did.

The next morning Aayla awoke with a start, sitting upright in her bed as beads of cold sweat were dripping down her back. Her dream was different... completely different than normal. She had won... her family had been safe. She had made a difference. She reached up as she felt the tears flowing from her eyes once more.

"I can't cry... not anymore..."
She muttered to herself as she took the sheet and wiped her face clean of tears. She abruptly stood up out of bed and moved to her dresser where she retreived the new clothing she had bought from the stores in Crocus. She had found a beautiful dark blu  dress that went down to her anles, a white shirt that looked around her neck with a form of obi that went around her waist. OVer-top the dress was a lighter blue fabric that acted as a second layer to the dress, and added in all of the details. She even did her hair slightly differently, letting it all flow loosely except for two strands which she tied only at the very ends.

The walk back to that secluded beach felt like the longest walk of her life. Guilt was welling up ain her chest right alongside the excitement she felt at this opportunity.  The moment her feet would step into that ocean, her future as a wizard would change forever, and just as she dipped under the water, she couldn't have been more right.

Hydrianna's training started immediately upon their meeting. The dragon casting it's spell on the small girl, making her small body supress and almost forget her takeover magic, and replacing it instead with the base abilities of slayer magic. While underwater, Aayla could feel her lungs expand with much more ease than they ever had while she was under water. She could suddenly feel the ripples the nearby fish created, she could even see them swimming far behind the dragon. She felt strong, she felt light.... she felt great! A large smile crossed her face as Hydrianna could only laugh at the girls goofy expression.

With the spell cast, and the game set, it was time to start Aayla's training. For week's at a time, Aayla would come and go from the Sabertooth guild hall, never stayng longer than a day or two before claiming to take on a few jobs in some far away city. She needed all the time she could take with Hydrianna. And indeed as time went by, she would slowly become stronger. Soon, she could roar like a dragon, fight like a dragon and live as a dragon. Often times she slept right by Hydrianna's side, underwater.

During the days of her training, Hydrianna would often have her fight against larger sea animals. the smallest of them at first, but as time went on, she soon found herself taking on sharks, swimming side by side with dolphins as she took breaks, hunting for fish alongside wales and learning from the deep sea creatures how to use her new habitat to defend herself. She developped even more techniques just by watching creatures like the manta rays.

She just hoped no one at the guild hall payed too much attention to her disappearances.