The Systems Challenge

Sonya listened to Heather's breathing as it evened out and deepened. She wished she could go to sleep as easily as Heather, but it wasn't like she was that worried about it. Right then, she was happy that Heather could sleep.

Getting the dragon shape was a surprise, but it was also nice to get. Since training with Murdock and Tina, she'd only gotten one other shape, but that was more of a set shape rather than like with the dragon one. With the drawing of shapes, she'd drawn a few previously, but none were remotely close to the one she'd just gotten.

The only shapes she had that she felt had any use for combat was the dragon shape and the one she'd gotten before that: a wolf shape. The only thing was, she still hadn't figured out some of the abilities that she was confident it had. She wasn't sure if it was a dire wolf or a 'wolf' monster, since it was much larger than any other wolves she'd even seen, even in documentaries.

However, she'd only let Heather know about the dragon shape because she had let Heather know what she was doing in the first place. She wasn't sure if doing that had been a mistake, but she was tired of getting useless shapes like a dragonfly or a squirrel. While they could be useful for some reconnaissance, given her hearing and vision only improved in those shapes rather than becoming just like how those creatures' senses actually were.

Only, she doubted that she'd be able to bring herself to do anything like that in those shapes, since it wouldn't be too difficult to end up getting killed. Especially as a dragonfly.

She'd gone to Heather in hopes that maybe doing something like holding her hand while drawing it would help her luck. It was irrational, she knew, since that sort of thing really wouldn't have any actual effect on the result. It merely helped her emotionally when making the draw.

Sonya wasn't sure what to expect from the dragon shape, since she'd seen some fantasy shows, books, games, and movies that had dragons that could fly, while others had some dragons that couldn't. The only way would be to test it out for herself, but she doubted that she'd be able to really predict anything about it.

Especially since there always seemed to be something off with any of the shapes she'd turned into. As a dragonfly it had been that she reflected light like she was made of metal, as a squirrel her fur was incredibly shaggy, as a wolf her fur seemed to glow in the dark, and as a lizard her scales shifted to whatever color made her stand out the most wherever she was.

No matter what she'd tried, it didn't seem to help her avoid such issues. Which made her wonder if those things were set into the shapes she got, regardless of anything else. Although, she had learned about a few tricks she could do with changing her shape, even though that hardly helped with the primary issues with them.