Wind nodded, and said "Lin is far more used to teaching young humans how to use magic than I am.  I'm afraid it's hard to explain, because it's something rather innate to us."

As expected, Fiona was still ground-bound when she opened her eyes again. But just then, Judith returned with two plates of hot pancakes. She put one down in front of Fiona, the other along with plates and cutlery on the table on the porch.

Fiona couldn't eat with a knife and fork like this, of course - but she found that she had a long, dextrous forked tongue that she could use to grab a few pancakes off the pile and pull them into her mouth. Judith merely chuckled as she witnessed this. "Feeling better now?" she asked, and Fiona nodded - the pancakes, and aunt Judith's calm reaction to her transformation, indeed made her feel better.

Over the meal, Fiona began telling aunt Judith all about what she could now do - how she had been changing her shape yesterday, and that she'd become elastic and still was.

  Wind sat and ate his pancakes like any civilized person, possibly a little surprisingly to Fiona, but he did have excellent manners.

  Judith asked her, rather calmly "What are you going to do until you find yourself unstuck?  I don't think you fit in your bedroom right now very well."

"I'm not sure yet..." Fiona admitted. Part of her huge body formed a half circle around Judith and Wind, at a respectful distance. "Yesterday I met another para, her name is Megaira, and she has a very large estate... I hope that she can help me. And she knows several other dragons, too."

  Wind nodded, and said to Judith "Megaira's a princess by dint of being Lin's daughter, but she is not a fully trained sorceress as Lin is.  She is, however, a very generous and kind soul."

  Judith nodded, and told Fiona "You do whatever you need to do, my dear, and be very careful about those anti-para people who are planning to be obnoxious today downtown."

Fiona nodded her massive head. "I don't think I'll go anywhere near there today." She certainly didn't feel like going out in public while she was like this. Although a small part of her wondered if she could scare off the protesters while she was as big as this...

"Hey, um... Wind?" she asked once all of her pancakes were eaten, which didn't take very long. "Do the colors of a dragon mean anything?"

  Wind said "They can, but they do not always.  Most river dragons have water colors.  Earth dragons will be green and gold.  Fire dragons, gold and yellow and red.  Air dragons tend to be whites and grays.  Celestials tend to be dark with lighter spangles like stars."

Fiona looked herself over once again. Her dark scales with the golden frills looked quite beautiful, although she'd have been able to appreciate it more if she wasn't stuck like this. "So... I'm a celestial dragon right now? What does that mean?"

  Wind, who was emerald and gold, said "Actually, you tell Celestial from Imperial and Elemental by the number of claws we have.  I have five claws, which makes me an Imperial Dragon.  Celestials have six or seven.  Elementals have four.  That's the true way to divine which breed we are, but sometimes one of us can be. . . . elevated from one breed to the next, at the wishes of the Heavens."  He indicated her five-clawed feet, (opposable thumbs still there) and said "You may not be constrained by the normal rules for Dragons like we are, though.  You weren't born a Dragon."

Fiona raised a foreclaw, wiggling each finger individually. "Do you grow extra claws when that happens, too?" She wondered in the back of her mind what it'd look like to have seven fingers on each hand. She'd had four arms before; extra fingers probably didn't look much odder than that. "And what does it mean to be an imperial, or a celestial dragon?"

  Wind said "Different breeds have different responsibilities.  I do not know all the secrets of the Celestials, but when we change rank, yes, we do grow the appropriate number of toes.  I was hatched an Earth Dragon.  I was elevated to an Imperial Dragon by good service to the Imperial Family."

Fiona nodded her giant head. She wondered if, now that she was a dragon (at least for the time being), she'd get any responsibilities like a natural-born one. "I guess we should go and find Meg... see if she can offer any help." She smiled at her aunt. "I'll see you later... and thanks." Very gently, she leaned forward and nuzzled Judith with her giant snout.

  Judith petted her nose, and said "You will be careful, now won't you, Fiona?"

  Wind smiled, and said "Do you want me to stay in a human form for the time being, Fiona?"

"Up to you," Fiona replied as she left the backyard and walked out into the street, her body now for the first time fully stretched out and not coiled up anymore. Hopefully, in a city like this where parahumans were a frequent sight and even dragons weren't unheard of, she wouldn't cause a big scene.

  Wind walked veside her, his presence, and the monk-like robes he wore setting some people more at ease over seeing a huge Chinese dragon on the streets.  He said "You do make a lovely she-dragon, though, miss Fiona."

Fiona chuckled quietly, and her cheeks could be seen turning slightly pink, if she wasn't all black. "Just call me Fiona, please." She wandered down the sidewalk, occasionally turning her head to make sure that her end wasn't bumping into anything.

-> To Kattakara Estate

Ozzy entered the airspace over the suburbs, looking around for the address and home that Lucas had given him, hoping to check in on his relatives. He hoped that nothing had happened by now, though he knew that that was always a possibility in this crazy city.

  Clarissa pointed to the street, and said "Follow that street, we can probably spot the house number if you fly sort of low, love."

Ozzy nodded, dropping a bit of altitude, enough to where they could spot street names and numbers, but he didn't drop so low as to look like he was planning on getting in the middle of traffic.

{{Right. Why didn't I think of that? Heh, still just used to flying places where I know where it is.}}

  She giggled, and said "You're just not used to thinking practical when it comes to flying, love.  I'm actually thinking of how house numbers are designed to be seen, from street level!"

Ozzy grinned, "Yeah, true. Silly me, forgetting most people can't fly."

He looked around more for the Martinez residence, now that he could actually see the freaking signs properly.

  She giggled, and pointed to the house numbers, and asked "Which number are we hunting?"

The house number would have been a prominent "1311", which matched the description that Lucas gave. As the two intrepid heroes came closer, they noticed a middle-aged Hispanic man with a slightly receding hairline working outside in the yard. He was well built for a man his age, not too muscular but well defined.

Ozzy circled above the house, climbing a bit so that hopefully he might be confused for a REALLY big bird if they looked up. He then scanned the area, looking for any signs of immediately impending trouble. If he couldn't see anything, he'd start to work on a spell to create some constructs that would follow the family, hopefully unseen, and alert him to anything that happened to them. They would be about the size of ants, and programmed to keep eyes on their targets while staying out of sight. Of course, he needed to get a quick look at the other two as well, before he could send the paint-golems to watch them.

  Clarissa kissed his chest, and said "I'll drop down and tell him that Lucas is okay, but he's taking a couple days rest.  Maybe see if the rest of the family will step outside for a few, love.  Ready?"  She half-spread her wings, letting her catch the wind if he was ready to let her go.