The Will to Burn All Part 2

   It was mid-afternoon and the light was burning hot. The trees gave little cover from the intense heat. I walked through it, until I found a cave. I ran inside and felt and cool air brush past me when I entered. I threw my bag on the ground and was just about to sit down for a nap when I saw something that caught my eye.
   It looked like a floating gem of ice water. It was such a deep blue and looked so pure. I walked over and touched it. It sent an icy chill down my spine. It had this feeling of power, and I recalled people in the last village I went to talk about this crystal. It was called the Wizards Crystal and it could grant any wish. I pulled my knife from my pocket. All I had to do was write what I wanted on it. I should've wished for my Young Master to come back to life, but my selfish desires took hold of me. I wrote what I dearly wanted. I wrote, "The power to turn into any living thing".
   The crystal floated up into the air and shone with a bright blue light. The light directed towards me and I felt power. The crystal vanished and I laughed like an insane person. Then a powerful pain swept through my body. I could feel my bones shift and my muscles change. My hands grew fur and pads, my ears and eyes became larger and better. The pain was unbearable. After the first change I thought I was done, but then a second one took its place, then a third. I writhed on the ground, my cries cutting off from a human scream to an animal's howl. I was changing into every animal I knew, and I knew a lot of them. It took several days for all the animal shifting to take place.
   I lay on the floor of the cave, exhausted. I was back to my regular human form. The pain was still there and every time I moved a fresh wave of pain crept through my body. I thought about my Young Master again, and how this pain must be some sort of pay back for not wishing him to come back alive. I was hungry and terribly thirsty, but I didn't want to move.
   I slept for several hours, until my thirst and hunger finally got me moving. I felt so weak and light headed. I fell down a couple of times, but I was finally able to get into my bag and take out some food along with some water. I ate about a weeks' worth of my daily rations and drank all my water that I had. I dozed for the rest of the day and through the night.
   In the morning I felt much better, so I packed up what little I had and set off. I walked to the nearest lake and saw some birds sipping from it. I remembered my powers that I got, and focused an image of the bird in my mind. I felt my bones shift and lighten, my muscles change. It was painful, but not nearly as bad as the first time. I looked at my new set of wings and feathers. I flapped my wings, but didn't get off the ground. I practiced all day and forgot the main reason I came to the lake. I went to pick up my water jug, and panicked when I still saw feathers and wings. I focused on my human form and when I opened my eyes, I had my hands and everything back to normal. I checked the lake just to make sure I didn't have a beak still. Thankfully I didn't.
   I filled up my water jug and headed towards the nearest town to refill my stock of food that I had eaten all in one night. On my way there I made sure to stay in the heavily wooded areas and practiced my shape shifting. I found that each time I did it, the pain would lessen, until I couldn't feel it anymore. I grew super hungry by the time I reached the city limits.
   I decided to treat myself to a restaurant and bought so much food, I was surprised at the bill. More surprised was that I was able to eat it all. Next I went to the store and bought so much food, I was sure my bag was going to explode food products everywhere when I left.
   I was having a hard time figuring out why I've been so hungry lately. I decided to try an experiment. I transformed outside the city, first into something small. I got larger and larger, and started to feel my stomach rumble. I ate some food and tried again. This time I started larger first. I got hungry faster. "Ok so the larger the animal I become, the faster I get fatigued when I change back. Makes sense since larger animals have to eat more and have larger muscles," I said to myself. So another mystery solved. Now my food supply was spared for longer.
   After a couple days in town I thought it wise to leave again. I walked on in the night. I found that in my human form, my senses were slightly enhanced. I could see outlines of things in the dark. I found it interesting and liked traveling more at night.
I found the outline of another cave, and feeling adventurous I ventured inside. I threw my bag down at the entrance and walked further into the cave, into the dark. I wanted to test my new senses and see how far I could push them. Just when I was starting to become blind I saw light at the back of the cave. Curious I ventured forward.
   The light that I saw was some sort of flame circle. It appeared to be in some kind of design, and I didn't see anything or hear anything except for the flames crackle. I stepped right into the circle. Big mistake. I heard a loud roar, which hurt my new sensitive ears and saw something large and black come whooshing towards me. I jumped backward in time to see, what was I seeing? A dragon!
   It was large. Very large. Its head would've hit the ceiling of the cave if it wasn't bent over trying to kill me. Its eyes were red and blood thirsty. The teeth were so large, you could make a broad swords out of them. They'd probably be the sharpest swords in the world. It swiped at me again with its large paw full of dagger long claws and I dodged again. I knew I couldn't fight this dragon. It'd be suicidal to even try, and with my new powers I wasn't willing to take the risk.
   I transformed into an eagle and turned toward the entrance and flew forwards as fast as I could. I heard its angry roar and felt a hot breath by my tail feathers. It was chasing me... great… I saw the entrance and swooped down to grab my bag. I almost pitched forward and fell. I forgot that I wasn't human and that birds are light for flight. I just grabbed a huge bag full of food!
   I pitched upward, and it was hard to get anywhere that way. The dragon came to the entrance and roared again. It seemed to have lost sight of me and blew a huge wall of flame. It stalked back inside, leaving the grass and trees burning in its lawn. Apparently I wasn't welcome back to its nice home.