"Well... I dreamed that I was flying. High above the clouds... and I think that there were some other dragons as well... so I guess that I must have been one myself. That's it, really." She furrowed her brow. "I've tried picturing my human form, the way I normally do when I change..." She closed her eyes and gave it another try, just to check if circumstances had somehow changed in the meantime.

  Lin cocked her head, and said "Normally the Trickster gods try to teach with their tricks.  What lessons can you take from this?"

Fiona scratched her head (stretching one forelimb rather long to do so). "I'm not sure. Being a gigantic dragon is rather inconvenient, but also kind of cool? Or... maybe that I should use my powers for good, to help and protect people, and become a hero."

  Lin said quietly "Most Chinese Dragons are guardians of some sort or another.  Perhaps the Trickster Gods wish you to follow this lead.  Perhaps to amuse them, or perhaps to teach OTHER humans a lesson about humillity.  So many humans don't even believe in the Gods anymore."

Fiona nodded softly. "Maybe. I... helped out a little at the rally, when everything went crazy. I'm not sure I taught the people there any humility, though... the mutants kept attacking me, even though they couldn't get through my scales."

  Lin said gently "The mutants are power-crazed.  But the normal humans can learn from that.  Perhaps that IS what the gods wanted for you."

Fiona looked thoughtful for a moment before she spoke again. "So the gods want me to go and walk among humans, or at least show myself to them? As a living divine sign?"

  Lin smiled, and said "Think of all the trickster stories you know, Fiona.  Does that make sense?"

"Well... no," Fiona admitted. "When a trickster has an encounter with a human, they usually don't let the human know about it until afterwards, if at all."

She frowned, looking back at herself. "So you think the dragon form is meant as a symbol of sorts?"

  Lin nodded, and said "I think perhaps the Gods wish for Mortals to become less prejudiced.  After all, clearly you are Chosen by the gods for something.  WHAT, we don't know, but if they can take a young woman who was perfectly ordinary, and make her into someone extraordinary, they COULD do it to anyone.  The only real difference, Fiona, is that someone gave you powers to let your inner truth shine out for everyone to see.  HOW you choose to use the powers you've been given will show the REST of the ordinary mortals out there what you're made of, and how much they could make a difference, IF they try."

"But..." Fiona furrowed her brow. "It doesn't make any sense. Why would they give me the power to change my shape in the first place, and then take it away again? They could have just turned me into a dragon straight away."

 Lin held her hands up, closing her eyes, and said "The power is still there.  But there is something . . . different about you."  She rose, and stepped closer, pacing around before she spread her arms, rising into the air, floating up and over to land in the middle of Fiona's coils.  Then she opened her eyes.  They glowed a solid, deep emerald as she pulled on the power within her, and Fiona could FEEL the power, making her feel like every hair was standing on end as Lin turned her FULL power to sorting things out.  It felt . . .rather frightening to have a millennia old sorceress inspecting her minutely.

Fiona closed her eyes. She felt the magic coursing through her entire body, inspecting not only her physical presence, but the core of her very being. She tried to stay still, but the sensation caused her to shiver all over. "What... what are you doing?" she asked in a trembling voice.

  Lin said abstractedly "I'm LOOKING.  You're not purely human anymore, Fiona.  One, you're God-Touched.  Two, you've been mutated.  Welcome to the ranks of parahumanity even if your God-Touched is ever revoked."  She floated back over to the table, and sat back down, her aura of power once more fading away to 'nothing' as it normally felt, and she smiled at Fiona as she added "Something got through your scales.  Perhaps this is why you were put into Dragonform?  So that you didn't freak at something a bit closer to human, but still not all the way?"

Fiona's eyes grew wide, bigger than hubcaps. "I... I got mutated? But... but..." she stammered. "At the rally, there were all these mutants... I tried to contain them, so they wouldn't harm any more people, and they started clawing at me... but Ozzy said... if I'd gotten mutated... it would have happened at once?" Right now, she looked more confused than shocked, not quite believing what she was hearing.

  Lin asked gently "Think, Fiona.  What are your God-Touched powers?  So if you think, now, of 'relaxing' to humanshape and let your form 'snap back', what happens?"

After everything that Lin had said, Fiona now felt rather scared of trying to change back, and bit her lower lip softly. "I'll... change in my mutated form instead?" Another shiver ran down her spine. She didn't even want to think about what that meant.

  Lin asked her "Are Ozzy and Clarissa scary?  They're both mutants.  Hit by the mutagen.  Ozzy got mutated like you did, protecting someone innocent from another mutant.  There is no shame in that, Fiona."

Fiona paused for a moment, then nodded her head. "Y-yeah, you're right. I'll just..." She closed her eyes and exhaled softly (creating a gentle gust of wind). For a moment, nothing happened. Then her gigantic body began to shrink, rapidly growing shorter, like a noodle being sucked in. Her face grew slightly more relaxed as she felt this. As her head grew smaller, it also began changing, back towards a more human one.

Within a minute, the change was over. Fiona hesitantly opened her eyes. Her head, her arms and her upper body, they were all human again - the way she had been. She was naked, however - she hadn't gone to sleep in the clothes Lin had enchanted for her. From the waist down, however, it was a different story. Fiona now looked a bit like a centaur - except, instead of a horse, she had a leopard for a lower body. And not just a regular one - where its tail would be, it looked like another torso was attached, with another pair of hindlegs. Disbelievingly, she looked down at herself and ran a hand along her furred back. "Wh... what is - aah!" She hadn't noticed at first, but now she raised her hand to her face to give it a closer inspection. Instead of five fingers on each hand, she now had six - with fingernails sharp and pointed like claws.

  Lin gently reminded her "Mutagen got into you.  I don't know what your final, 'true' form is, but we will figure it out.  Don't worry.  None of the New Age Defenders will laugh at you or make fun of you."

Fiona looked up at Lin, her six legs shifting about uneasily. "My... final form? What do you mean?" Her tail was slightly bristled, like that of an annoyed or scared cat. After a moment, she noticed that she was naked, and quickly put her arms around her chest - only to prick herself with her sharp clawlike nails. "Yow!" she yelped and jumped up, at least with the front half of her body.

  Lin reminded her gently "Remember, you're a shapeshifter.  No matter what your body says is your true form, you're probably really only limited to your imagination's grasp, Fiona."

"But... well, I mutated... does that mean that this is my true form now?" She looked down at herself once more, at her extended feline body. "Whenever I change back to normal... I'll look like this?" A muffled sob escaped her. She closed her tear-filled eyes and concentrated. Slowly, almost reluctantly, her feline half shrank away, leaving only her human legs. Her hands shifted as well, finally leaving her completely human again.

  Lin said honestly "I don't know for certain.  It could be.  It is not an unhandsome form, Fiona.  I have seen far worse ones."

Fiona looked up at Lin. "You... you think it's beautiful? Really?" She closed her eyes and tried to relax again... but this time, she wasn't so lucky. Dark scales suddenly grew to cover her entire body, and her hair retracted into her skull. Her face... suddenly wasn't there anymore. Where it had been, there was just a large maw; as she opened it to cry out in horror, a long, prehensile tongue whipped out - and there were her eyes, INSIDE her mouth.

Her arms had no hands anymore; they now were tentacles, several feet long each. Her legs were completely gone; instead, she had a thick, serpentine lower body holding her up.