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Shifting
Blike felt as if he was floating. He opened his eyes, and looked around, all he could see was blackness. He could see his own body, but nothing else. He was floating in a sea of darkness. He felt a sudden numbness in his body, and as he watched his feet and hands began to melt away, turning into what looked like sand. He watched, fascinated and frightened, as the sand moved a few feet away and began to gather, first in a ball, and then it began to take form. Blike felt lightheaded as he watched the sand begin to shift into the form of four paws. As his arms began to disappear, he watched them form into the arms of the creature. Blike felt dizzy, and began to try to fight the change. He tried to pull himself back, and could see the sand slowing in its movement from him to the forming animal. Blike continued to pull back, trying to protect his dwindling self, but the creature seemed to be fighting as well. The sand continued to move toward the creature, which now had a long ringed tail and most of a body. Blike kept pulling, but felt he was slowly slipping away. He concentrated on his humanity, and began to pull as hard as he could. He watched the sand as it continued to shift over. He began to feel as though all was lost when he noticed the creature itself, now almost a fully formed raccoon, was being pulled toward him, even as the sand continued to move. Blike could suddenly feel the raccoon, its fear of him, its need to get away from him. It was as scared as he was. Blike continued to pull, but reached out with what seemed to be a phantom of his hand, a ghostly outline that hung in the air, forcing himself to calm down. He slowly reached out to touch the raccoon, which tried to shrink away, but was being forced ever closer to the mage. Blike slowly put a hand on its head, and began to pet the creature. He could feel it begin to calm down as the two got ever closer to each other. The raccoon slowly fell into Blike’s dissolving chest.
Blike woke up.
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