Sacred had always been a... burly doe. Not in the way that some particularly bull-like ladies happened to be, not in a way that screamed femininity and raw power. No, Sacred had always had the nagging suspicion that she had been born to the wrong sort of body, and that her true self would have been far better-suited to the bodies given to those kin who would carry clutches instead of sire them. When she had first heard the rumours of crystals that promised to transform one, she had thought it too good to be true. She'd never met anyone who had actually successfully undergone a change as drastic as she hoped for, and those that had, had shared no details of any catalyst for the change, other than a particular flower she was already familiar with-- the flower of transformation.Her father, however, and his twin, were quite the avid collectors, and while both had also heard of crystals that may or may not have the ability to effect change, both agreed that if anyone found a crystal of such beauty would be blessed regardless of such a change, and be given at least a story to talk with. "Besides," Echo had drawled, over a shared turtle shell of fermented juice, "the point of many journeys isn't the destination, but having been willing to set out to do it in the first place." That had spoken deeply to Sacred. "You won't blame others long for having told a story of something too good to be true, but if your heart is pulling you to try and seek this, you may regret it if you never even tried."
Those had been the words that had settled it for the younger kin. No matter what, she'd have a story-- and possibly also a very pretty stone to bring as a gift to her father's hoard. She'd set off the next morning, after tracking down Ashes and bidding her to follow for a hunt.
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That had been the first day of several fruitless weeks, the end of which saw her returning bereft of any crystals. When she had been away, her thoughts had kept turning to her family, and to her friends-- the does which she struggled to maintain eye contact with and who were kind when she stuttered or failed to act gracefully. No, it hadn't been until she was back home, helping sort through the hodgepodge of piled treasures in a stump that Echo and Cave Yell had been using as a cache for some years, that she found a cluster of crystals, standing in a pillar of honeycomb-like shape. She'd taken it with her when she went to stretch out for the evening, musing over it as she tried to console herself. Maybe she hadn't been able to travel far from home to meet success, but she had traveled far, and for the first time in her life, at that. She'd met many kin who knew nothing of her family, had talked with others in seeking that mythic stone, only to find a cluster of cloudy violet rock with fractures running through, fractures that caught the sunlight in unpredictable rainbows as she gently nudged it with her nose, until the sunlight fell below the tree line and the doe began to doze.-~-
Mirrored surfaces surrounded her. A fractured reflection regarded her from straight ahead, neck long and proud, with her mane tucked back and up around dragon-like horns that had turned to look like her aunt and grand-aunt's. If it weren't for the white-and-gold of her own pelt, she'd have thought it was Venturous or When before her-- except that her mane was too straight. Something told her that, should she follow, her change might just be possible indeed.Another reflection caught her eye, making her turn to look. A solemn, firefly-eyed mare regarded her, mane and tail billowing like steam off of a lake, or like fire escaping into the air only to wisp out of existence, but as she stepped forward, the reflection seemed to disappear-- that was not something she could trivially become. She saw an acha with her features, an acha like her grandsire, with a back as smooth as a doe's belly... and another where the bright yellows of her pelt had faded to a softer, more rosy sunrise gold. A face, there, with bigger eyes and no facial scales. Hair there, curling like her mother's, with a tail to match. A body there, heavy with foal and daintier than most of her family's, albeit somewhat taller than she'd always wanted.
That last one pulled to her, as strongly as any. To have the body of a doe-- a doe like she'd always fantasized being, dainty and smooth-- was more than anything she had ever thought possible. She refused to let this opportunity pass her by.
With a sense of wonder and certainty, Sacred stepped forward, melting into the reflection until it had engulfed her completely