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Jonathan\nW\nMosher\n\n \n\n\nChapter Index\n\nChapter 1:\tA Strange Day\t\t\tPage 6\nChapter 2:\tFirst Day of School\t\tPage 12\nChapter 3:\tThe Change\t\t\tPage 18\nChapter 4:\tAdapting\t\t\t\tPage 28\nChapter 5:\tThe Strange World\t\tPage 36\nChapter 6:\tThe Quest\t\t\t\tPage 48\nChapter 7:\tChoices\t\t\t\tPage \nChapter 8: \tConsequences\t\t\tPage \nChapter 9:\tNew Love\t\t\t\tPage \n \nPREFACE\n\nBorn December 12th 1999, our hero, Jake Isaiah Fraveldt, lived well. Not just well be really well, his parents were both bringing in well over a seven-figure salary a month each. Despite their wealth they chose to live a simple, somewhat meager lifestyle. Saving their money away for emergencies, spending only what they absolutely had to. Because of this, Jake, while still not being the most fancily dressed kid at school never had to wear family hand me downs or tattered old clothes found in thrift shops, not that his parents didn’t try to get him to try… Jake was really more of a rough-and-tumble kind of guy, never falling in with the most polite crowd but knowing when to respect others when his friends would tend to push the limits of legality. Throughout school Jake passed most of his classes; science, history and languages were always his stronger periods and his teacher’s would often appraise him for his flawless work. Classes like math, literature and some of the others weren’t as easy for him. He’d had to be tutored through them all his life. When he reached his last year of middle school his friends’ influence had sunk in and it was clear that drastic actions had to be taken or Jake would end up in jail or court within a year or two. Jake had gotten a tattoo, pierced his ears and dyed his hair a bright green. This irked his parents off to no end, and this is where the story really begins…\n\nJake awoke the day before his 18th birthday, with a scowl on his pierced face. “Great, another day, another bunch of stupid pointless classes that are a total waste of my friggin time.” Jake said climbing out of bed and shuffling to his closet in a stupor. He pulled his favorite Ramones band tee, a pair of ratty skinny jeans, and his favorite high top red converse sneakers. His hair was a mess but he didn’t care. “At least its still green.’ He said smirking, ‘lousy over-controlling parents trying to tell me how I’m allowed to look?” he said as he grabbed his books and headed down to catch the bus to school. Just as he peaked the top of the hill above the bus stop it started pulling away. He knew he couldn’t catch up. “AW COME ON!!” he screamed, to nobody in particular as he charged down the hill after it. He figured he’d be late anyway so he just decided he’d skip again. “Not like I’m gonna miss anything important anyway.”\n\nJake turned around and headed down a side street that led him into his favorite industrial district full of filthy back alleys, dingy stores with barely any light and that’s when he noticed a store he’d never seen before, right next to the record shop he’d always skate over to after school. “That’s odd, I could have sworn there was a vacant lot there yesterday.” He thought aloud. He ran over to it and walked inside deciding to scope out the shop, case it for later when he planned to do his usual weekly looting. Inside was a wide array of animal-related merchandise; there were teddy bears, stuffed animal pillows, paw print rings, paw slippers, stuff you’d find at those cheesy kids stores or thrift shops on the side of the highway. “What a load of junk, how is this dump making any money, seriously, who’d buy this trash!” he commented aloud again.” Just then the storeowner swept out from behind a curtain in the back of the room. “I’ll have you know most of these are priceless antiquities, not junk. My name is Garbeau. No Mr., accent on the ‘beau’. And if you think my store is full of junk, why did you even come in here?” the owner queried. “I was just looking.” Jake said backing away, hiding a silver and gold pendant in his back pocket as he turned and left the shop. “Geez what a freak!” Jake thought as he headed to school.\n\nJust as Jake knew he would be, he got there late as usual and received a detention slip as the principal scolded him. “15th one this week Mr. Feldstrom. I expect to see you in my office tomorrow after school or you will be expelled, do I make myself clear Jake?” he said shoving jake down the hall to his class. The rest of classes before lunch were just as boring as Jake had expected them to be. Yet another “pop” quiz in history, third this week, big surprise there; a fitness exam in P.E. and a project for math. Hours later, exhausted and upset from the scolding he knew would happen when his parents found out about the possibility of their “perfect” son getting expelled. “GOD I HATE MY LIFE, I WISH SOMETHING EXCITING WOULD GET ME OUT OF THIS GODFORSAKEN LIFE!” He screamed. The same old life the same old stuff had gotten boring fast and he decided that if they didn’t change soon he would be out of there with no looking back. He didn’t care where he went, anywhere had to be better then where he was now.\n\n\n\n\nJake woke up the next morning feeling really stiff. Which was unusual. “I’m finally able to do what I want from now on, I can smoke like a chimney and my parents cant do a thing about it, I’m legally an adult and they can just piss off if they don’t like it.” He grinned. Today he decided to wear something he’d been saving, a tank top with the words ‘KISS MY @$$” on it and the jeans form the day before. The rest of the day went by smoothly for a change. Not one teacher scolded him, and the principal was out sick, which meant he had no detention because all the teachers had lives after school let out which really worked in his favor. School let out and Jake skated over to Mr. Garbeau’s and found nothing but an empty lot. “What the heck?’ Jake swore as he rubbed his eyes. “Must’ve imagined it, oh well.” He said heading into work and putting on his apron. \n\nHe bid hello to old man Andy and got to work shelving the stacks of records on the carts in the back into their proper bins. After several hours of polishing the windows, dusting the shelves and re-alphabetizing the collections, he headed home. Thinking back over his day he realized things were finally turning around. He got home to find his parents standing at the foot of the stairs, arms crossed and feet tapping the floor impatiently. “What did I do this time?” Jake groaned. “Nothing sweetie’ his mom chimed. ‘Listen we head what happened with the principal the other day and we..” his mother began excitedly, fidgeting a bit. “Dear, lets let Jake get to bed, I’m sure he’s had a long day, and he’s tired, but before you go champ, these are for you.” Fraveldt tossed his son a pair of keys. The keys had the new Lamborghette logo on them. “THANKS DAD!” Jake said running up to his room, where he could look out the window. When he looked out back there was a brand new car in the driveway. “I’m too tired to go joyriding tonight.” he sighed as he fell asleep hoping against hope that somehow, someway things would finally change for him.\n \n\n\n\nA Strange Day\n\n \tThe day had started out as normal as any other, but how it had gone terribly awry Jake had no idea. He’d just celebrated his eighteenth birthday the day before. His parents had even bought him a brand new car so he’d have a way to get to the new school he’d be going to, the same one his parents had both attended, as he’d found out the night before. What was weird was the way his parents had acted that night. They had seemed uptight and fidgety, almost nervous. He’d passed it off the night before thinking that they were just worried about the new car getting wrecked. After all it wasn’t even supposed to have been released in the US yet. It was a Lamborghette Monte Carlo. It had a sleek black body with an almost imperceptible silvery monogram on the hood with Jake’s initials. \n\nWhen he’d woken up that morning though and looked in the mirror he screamed. Looking back at him wasn’t the handsome teenage face he’d been accustomed to seeing but the face of a purple-furred wolf with green ears and a black soul patch. A moment later his parents burst in and giggled at their son’s reflection. “Honey, its alright. There’s something your father and I forgot to tell you.” His mother said leading him over to his steel four-poster bed. They sat him down and told him that they were actually wolves with the power to transform into human form. They both removed what Jake had thought were their wedding rings and found that his father had fur the same color as his ears and his mother sleek black fur. “You see honey, you were never truly human, and you last name isn’t Feldstrom its actually Shadowpaw.”\n\nJake, stunned into silence by the truth being told, let out a long sad howl. He then clasped a furry paw over his snout and whimpered. Had he really just howled? His tail twitched beneath him and he jumped up. He actually had a tail! For years now he’d always wondered what it would be like to have one. He paced back and forth at the foot of the bed, thinking that he’d go into school and be laughed at by his classmates because of his looks. It was then that his parents continued their story. “About your new school dear, this isn’t like the others that you used to go to, the kids here are…special. They’re well, not human either. You won’t have to worry about not fitting in; in fact you’ll probably be one of the populars.\n\nJake thought this over then went to his walk in closet and realized none of his old clothes were there anymore. They had been replaced during the night with tight-fitting tees and a dozen long-sleeved shirts. His collections of corduroys were also gone. They had been replaced with sleek denim and tight leather jeans. “He tried them on and discovered that they fit perfectly. “Mom, dad?” he said looking at them, tears flooding his vision. They rushed over to him and hugged him tightly. A moment later Jake realized that his now digitigrade legs now would no longer fit in any of his favorite sneakers. He looked over at them sadly as his father started tossing them all into a bag along with all of Jakes old hats. “Don’t worry son, they’ll all just go up into the attic for now.”\n\nKatalina and Fraveldt Shadowpaw hurried their sun to get dressed otherwise he’d have been late to the school orientation day. Jake picked out a short-sleeved white shirt that read “FURRY & PROUD OF IT” and put on a sleeveless denim vest on over it and a pair of khaki jeans to match. He slid down the wrought-iron stairwell railing and bounced into the kitchen grabbing a muffin and running out the door as he grabbed a new monogrammed satchel off a hook by the door, swiped the keys from the bowl beside it and hopped into his car. \n\nHe started the engine, shocked to hear it roar to life around him the convertible hood slid up over his head and closed the roof above him. He pressed down the gas and rocketed forward at an almost neck-breaking speed. He lifted his paw and the car jolted to a stop. “Whoa, I’ve got to be more gentle with her.” He said as he lightly pressed the pedal down again. The car picked up speed and he was soon cruising at a pleasant 80 miles per hour down a long empty driveway and onto a deserted street in the middle of the woods. A few minutes later he pulled up in front of a humongous Victorian-style castle. In front of it was a stone sign that read “St. Frutio’s School for the Gifted.” He pulled the car into a large area reserved for the freshman and noticed that simple bicycles occupied most of the spots. He parked the car and clambered out and entered the front doors of the academy.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“I have to be in the wrong place, there is no way this place could possibly be a high school.” Jake said more to himself than anything but a passing student that resembled a fox shook his head and explained that St Frutio’s was more than a high school, it was a boarding school. Jake turned his head and asked what that was and the fox kid just laughed. “You must be new around here, I’m Kross Vorten, Vulpus house. I’ll show you around but first you need to talk to the headmaster St. Marcos Frutio.” He told Jake grabbing him by the shoulder and leading him up a flight of semi-hidden stairs behind a tall stone statue of a weird looking dragon with six wings, multiple tails with gruesome spikes and blades at the tip of each, a flaming head and a glare that would scare even nightmarish creatures. “Sir, I have a new student here.” David called out to a giant seated shadow sitting behind a massive wooden desk. \n\nThe shadowy figure stood up and Jake gulped noticing that the man had to be at least ten feet tall, if you didn’t include the horns protruding from the top of his head, which must’ve been another 3 feet long. “S-s-sir? I’m J-jake Shadowp-paw.” He stammered, clearly intimidated by the massive figure. “DON’T DO THAT BOY!!! BE PROUD OF YOUR HERITAGE!!” the figure boomed at him as he turned around and faced Jake. St. Marcos Frutio III was a muscular hulk of a man, with a white wispy beard and wrinkles all over his body. He sat down again, not really diminishing his height by much. \n\nJake winced as a thick stack of papers was slammed down onto the desk in front of him. “You must sign these if you wish to be enrolled here Shadowpaw. Jake read over the forms, signing them faster than he ever thought was possible before, then again he didn’t think being a shifter was possible before either so this must be part of being a wolf. He handed the stack back and the headmaster dropped the stack into a file cabinet and tapped a few keys on his computer, which burped out a schedule for him as well as a map of the school and where his dormitory room was. “Seeing as you’re a Shadowpaw, you get you father’s old penthouseesque room. Its at the top of the tallest tower and is only accessible by air so you’ll need a pair of wings to get there.” \n\nThe man growled as he pointed a finger at Jake. A moment later he felt his shirt and vest rip as a pair of dragon-like wings spread from his back. “COOL, I CAN FLY!!” he said leaping into the air and doing a barrel roll. “DO THAT AGAIN AND YOU’RE EXPELLED!” the headmaster snarled. “You’re only allowed to use those to get to your dormitory, and if you use them for anything else, I’ll know about it and you’ll be out of here faster than you can say you’re sorry.” Jake apologized, gathered the papers and trudged outside to find his dormitory. He gazed up and saw a solitary glassed-in tower with no door on the ground levels to be seen. He flew up to the top of the tower and saw a stone balcony surrounding the top floor. He landed and opened the door by placing a paw on the door with hummed and slid open at his touch.\n\nJake gasped and dropped everything as he saw that the room was decorated like that of a king’s. There were several diamond chandeliers hanging from the solid glass ceiling, He wandered around the multi-story room. First he explored the downstairs. There was a large kitchen, a dining room, an extravagant lounge with a piano and various instruments as well. Another room held technology he’d only ever read about in spy novels, stuff like grapping-hook guns and laser-beam pens and even a latex suit that looked perfectly tailored to fit him. “Whoa this can’t be right, my dad was no spy.” He said aloud not realizing the tall cervine butler standing behind him. “Quite the contrary young master, your father was one of the best, that’s how he met your mother after all. My name is Corvin. If you need me just howl.” He said climbing down a ladder onto a landing a meter below. Jake looked down and noticed a small chamber below him there was a bed, a small porcelain toilet, a shower and a miniature kitchen all together in a single room. “You’re welcome to live up here Corvin, I’ve got more space than I know what to do with and I noticed multiple bedrooms.” Corvin snorted with a surprising sense of glee, then calmed back down. “Are you certain sir, I wouldn’t want to intrude.” Jake replied, “Not at all Vin, mi casa es su casa.” He said helping the deer-man climb back up the ladder. He jumped down and began to help Corvin transfer all his clothes and needed items upstairs into one of the less posh, but still quite fancy, bedrooms.\n\nAfter he’d gotten Corvin settled, Jake continued exploring his expansive rooms and gasped again when he spotted his dream bedroom. Inside was a bed shaped like a giant dragon’s mouth but instead of a tongue there was a mattress and instead of teeth there was a curtain. The coolest thing was it wasn’t against a wall or sitting on the floor. It hung by heavy steel chains from the ceiling and swung freely. “AWESOME!!!” Just then Corvin addressed him. “Sir, you’ll be late for the opening ceremony if you don’t hurry. Your parents have already taken the liberty of having all your clothes sent here from your home.” He said pushing Jake up the stairs and outside again. “GO!” he said giving one last push, sending Jake careening off the edge of the balcony, causing him to fall screaming at least a dozen stories before remembering he could fly. \n\nJake soared down to the ground level clutching his bag and the papers he’d been given. He ran off to a large brick structure marked Gym where a bunch of students of varying species had already begun to file in. “Excuse me, coming through, pardon, sorry, “ he said shoving his way through the crowd to the front row to get a seat. No sooner had he sat down then his wings folded back up into his back as fur covered the spot they’d grown from. He and the other students clapped when the headmaster climbed onto the stage and grew quiet as he addressed them. “Welcome to another year at St. Frutio’s, This year we have another Shadowpaw among us, young Jacob Shadowpaw, please come forward!” he called out as a spotlight shone on Jake. He blushed, stood up and climbed up onto the stage. “Thank you sir.” Jake said shaking the dragon’s hand. “Young Jacob Shadowpaw here will of course be the starting quarterback on the football team, as well as the pitcher and captain for the baseball team, and the President of the school gov. just like his father before him.” Not wanting to incur the headmaster’s wrath while on stage, Jake decided to wait until after the ceremony to explain that he’d rather wait a few weeks before he got into all of that. \n\nHe just smiled and waved as he climbed back down and sat amongst the other students who were already clambering to sit beside him as if he was one of the populars, which he’d never been before. After the ceremony he noticed that it was already much darker outside than it had been before, Apparently the ceremony had lasted longer than he’d thought it would. He flew off to his solitary tower room and crawled into his dragon’s mouth bed and pulled the covers over him as he tugged on a cord, turning out all the lights in his room. \n\nHe slept more soundly than he’d ever had before and before long he was dreaming about the most beautiful raven girl he’d ever seen, ignoring that she was, in fact, the only raven-girl he’d ever seen before. “Just as he was about to ask her name, the curtains around his bed were pulled aside and bright sunlight shone on his face, temporarily blinding him. “Aurgh! CORVIN!!!” he snarled loudly falling out of bed onto the cold stone floor. A few feet away Corvin stood holding Jake’s new school uniform, a tight-fitting white polo shirt and crimson vest with the school’s coat of arms emblazoned on the right breast. “Your uniform sir, I do suggest you hurry or else you’ll be late for your first real day of classes.” He said handing the boy his clothes as well as a pile of books and his other papers.\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Spells & Shadows


  Jonathan
W
Mosher

 


Chapter Index

Chapter     1:\tA Strange Day\t\t\tPage 6
Chapter     2:\tFirst Day of School\t\tPage 12
Chapter     3:\tThe Change\t\t\tPage 18
Chapter     4:\tAdapting\t\t\t\tPage 28
Chapter     5:\tThe Strange World\t\tPage 36
Chapter     6:\tThe Quest\t\t\t\tPage 48
Chapter     7:\tChoices\t\t\t\tPage
Chapter     8:      \tConsequences\t\t\tPage
Chapter     9:\tNew Love\t\t\t\tPage
 
PREFACE

Born December 12th 1999, our hero, Jake Isaiah Fraveldt, lived well. Not just well be really well, his parents were both bringing in well over a seven-figure salary a month each. Despite their wealth they chose to live a simple, somewhat meager lifestyle. Saving their money away for emergencies, spending only what they absolutely had to. Because of this, Jake, while still not being the most fancily dressed kid at school never had to wear family hand me downs or tattered old clothes found in thrift shops, not that his parents didn’t try to get him to try… Jake was really more of a rough-and-tumble kind of guy, never falling in with the most polite crowd but knowing when to respect others when his friends would tend to push the limits of legality. Throughout school Jake passed most of his classes; science, history and languages were always his stronger periods and his teacher’s would often appraise him for his flawless work. Classes like math, literature and some of the others weren’t as easy for him. He’d had to be tutored through them all his life. When he reached his last year of middle school his friends’ influence had sunk in and it was clear that drastic actions had to be taken or Jake would end up in jail or court within a year or two. Jake had gotten a tattoo, pierced his ears and dyed his hair a bright green. This irked his parents off to no end, and this is where the story really begins…

Jake awoke the day before his 18th birthday, with a scowl on his pierced face. “Great, another day, another bunch of stupid pointless classes that are a total waste of my friggin time.” Jake said climbing out of bed and shuffling to his closet in a stupor. He pulled his favorite Ramones band tee, a pair of ratty skinny jeans, and his favorite high top red converse sneakers. His hair was a mess but he didn’t care. “At least its still green.’ He said smirking, ‘lousy over-controlling parents trying to tell me how I’m allowed to look?” he said as he grabbed his books and headed down to catch the bus to school. Just as he peaked the top of the hill above the bus stop it started pulling away. He knew he couldn’t catch up. “AW COME ON!!” he screamed, to nobody in particular as he charged down the hill after it. He figured he’d be late anyway so he just decided he’d skip again. “Not like I’m gonna miss anything important anyway.”

Jake turned around and headed down a side street that led him into his favorite industrial district full of filthy back alleys, dingy stores with barely any light and that’s when he noticed a store he’d never seen before, right next to the record shop he’d always skate over to after school. “That’s odd, I could have sworn there was a vacant lot there yesterday.” He thought aloud. He ran over to it and walked inside deciding to scope out the shop, case it for later when he planned to do his usual weekly looting. Inside was a wide array of animal-related merchandise; there were teddy bears, stuffed animal pillows, paw print rings, paw slippers, stuff you’d find at those cheesy kids stores or thrift shops on the side of the highway. “What a load of junk, how is this dump making any money, seriously, who’d buy this trash!” he commented aloud again.” Just then the storeowner swept out from behind a curtain in the back of the room. “I’ll have you know most of these are priceless antiquities, not junk. My name is Garbeau. No Mr., accent on the ‘beau’. And if you think my store is full of junk, why did you even come in here?” the owner queried. “I was just looking.” Jake said backing away, hiding a silver and gold pendant in his back pocket as he turned and left the shop. “Geez what a freak!” Jake thought as he headed to school.

Just as Jake knew he would be, he got there late as usual and received a detention slip as the principal scolded him. “15th one this week Mr. Feldstrom. I expect to see you in my office tomorrow after school or you will be expelled, do I make myself clear Jake?” he said shoving jake down the hall to his class. The rest of classes before lunch were just as boring as Jake had expected them to be. Yet another “pop” quiz in history, third this week, big surprise there; a fitness exam in P.E. and a project for math. Hours later, exhausted and upset from the scolding he knew would happen when his parents found out about the possibility of their “perfect” son getting expelled. “GOD I HATE MY LIFE, I WISH SOMETHING EXCITING WOULD GET ME OUT OF THIS GODFORSAKEN LIFE!” He screamed.  The same old life the same old stuff had gotten boring fast and he decided that if they didn’t change soon he would be out of there with no looking back. He didn’t care where he went, anywhere had to be better then where he was now.




Jake woke up the next morning feeling really stiff. Which was unusual. “I’m finally able to do what I want from now on, I can smoke like a chimney and my parents cant do a thing about it, I’m legally an adult and they can just piss off if they don’t like it.” He grinned. Today he decided to wear something he’d been saving, a tank top with the words ‘KISS MY @$$” on it and the jeans form the day before.  The rest of the day went by smoothly for a change. Not one teacher scolded him, and the principal was out sick, which meant he had no detention because all the teachers had lives after school let out which really worked in his favor. School let out and Jake skated over to Mr. Garbeau’s and found nothing but an empty lot. “What the heck?’ Jake swore as he rubbed his eyes. “Must’ve imagined it, oh well.” He said heading into work and putting on his apron.

He bid hello to old man Andy and got to work shelving the stacks of records on the carts in the back into their proper bins. After several hours of polishing the windows, dusting the shelves and re-alphabetizing the collections, he headed home. Thinking back over his day he realized things were finally turning around. He got home to find his parents standing at the foot of the stairs, arms crossed and feet tapping the floor impatiently. “What did I do this time?” Jake groaned. “Nothing sweetie’ his mom chimed. ‘Listen we head what happened with the principal the other day and we..” his mother began excitedly, fidgeting a bit. “Dear, lets let Jake get to bed, I’m sure he’s had a long day, and he’s tired, but before you go champ, these are for you.” Fraveldt tossed his son a pair of keys. The keys had the new Lamborghette logo on them. “THANKS DAD!” Jake said running up to his room, where he could look out the window. When he looked out back there was a brand new car in the driveway. “I’m too tired to go joyriding tonight.” he sighed as he fell asleep hoping against hope that somehow, someway things would finally change for him.
 



A Strange Day

 \tThe day had started out as normal as any other, but how it had gone terribly awry Jake had no idea. He’d just celebrated his eighteenth birthday the day before. His parents had even bought him a brand new car so he’d have a way to get to the new school he’d be going to, the same one his parents had both attended, as he’d found out the night before. What was weird was the way his parents had acted that night. They had seemed uptight and fidgety, almost nervous. He’d passed it off the night before thinking that they were just worried about the new car getting wrecked. After all it wasn’t even supposed to have been released in the US yet. It was a Lamborghette Monte Carlo. It had a sleek black body with an almost imperceptible silvery monogram on the hood with Jake’s initials.

When he’d woken up that morning though and looked in the mirror he screamed. Looking back at him wasn’t the handsome teenage face he’d been accustomed to seeing but the face of a purple-furred wolf with green ears and a black soul patch. A moment later his parents burst in and giggled at their son’s reflection. “Honey, its alright. There’s something your father and I forgot to tell you.” His mother said leading him over to his steel four-poster bed. They sat him down and told him that they were actually wolves with the power to transform into human form. They both removed what Jake had thought were their wedding rings and found that his father had fur the same color as his ears and his mother sleek black fur. “You see honey, you were never truly human, and you last name isn’t Feldstrom its actually Shadowpaw.”

Jake, stunned into silence by the truth being told, let out a long sad howl. He then clasped a furry paw over his snout and whimpered. Had he really just howled? His tail twitched beneath him and he jumped up. He actually had a tail! For years now he’d always wondered what it would be like to have one. He paced back and forth at the foot of the bed, thinking that he’d go into school and be laughed at by his classmates because of his looks. It was then that his parents continued their story. “About your new school dear, this isn’t like the others that you used to go to, the kids here are…special. They’re well, not human either. You won’t have to worry about not fitting in; in fact you’ll probably be one of the populars.

Jake thought this over then went to his walk in closet and realized none of his old clothes were there anymore. They had been replaced during the night with tight-fitting tees and a dozen long-sleeved shirts. His collections of corduroys were also gone. They had been replaced with sleek denim and tight leather jeans. “He tried them on and discovered that they fit perfectly. “Mom, dad?” he said looking at them, tears flooding his vision. They rushed over to him and hugged him tightly. A moment later Jake realized that his now digitigrade legs now would no longer fit in any of his favorite sneakers. He looked over at them sadly as his father started tossing them all into a bag along with all of Jakes old hats. “Don’t worry son, they’ll all just go up into the attic for now.”

Katalina and Fraveldt Shadowpaw hurried their sun to get dressed otherwise he’d have been late to the school orientation day. Jake picked out a short-sleeved white shirt that read “FURRY & PROUD OF IT” and put on a sleeveless denim vest on over it and a pair of khaki jeans to match. He slid down the wrought-iron stairwell railing and bounced into the kitchen grabbing a muffin and running out the door as he grabbed a new monogrammed satchel off a hook by the door, swiped the keys from the bowl beside it and hopped into his car.

He started the engine, shocked to hear it roar to life around him the convertible hood slid up over his head and closed the roof above him. He pressed down the gas and rocketed forward at an almost neck-breaking speed. He lifted his paw and the car jolted to a stop. “Whoa, I’ve got to be more gentle with her.” He said as he lightly pressed the pedal down again. The car picked up speed and he was soon cruising at a pleasant 80 miles per hour down a long empty driveway and onto a deserted street in the middle of the woods. A few minutes later he pulled up in front of a humongous Victorian-style castle. In front of it was a stone sign that read “St. Frutio’s School for the Gifted.” He pulled the car into a large area reserved for the freshman and noticed that simple bicycles occupied most of the spots. He parked the car and clambered out and entered the front doors of the academy.






“I have to be in the wrong place, there is no way this place could possibly be a high school.” Jake said more to himself than anything but a passing student that resembled a fox shook his head and explained that St Frutio’s was more than a high school, it was a boarding school. Jake turned his head and asked what that was and the fox kid just laughed. “You must be new around here, I’m Kross Vorten, Vulpus house. I’ll show you around but first you need to talk to the headmaster St. Marcos Frutio.” He told Jake grabbing him by the shoulder and leading him up a flight of semi-hidden stairs behind a tall stone statue of a weird looking dragon with six wings, multiple tails with gruesome spikes and blades at the tip of each, a flaming head and a glare that would scare even nightmarish creatures. “Sir, I have a new student here.” David called out to a giant seated shadow sitting behind a massive wooden desk.

The shadowy figure stood up and Jake gulped noticing that the man had to be at least ten feet tall, if you didn’t include the horns protruding from the top of his head, which must’ve been another 3 feet long. “S-s-sir? I’m J-jake Shadowp-paw.” He stammered, clearly intimidated by the massive figure. “DON’T DO THAT BOY!!! BE PROUD OF YOUR HERITAGE!!” the figure boomed at him as he turned around and faced Jake. St. Marcos Frutio III was a muscular hulk of a man, with a white wispy beard and wrinkles all over his body. He sat down again, not really diminishing his height by much.

Jake winced as a thick stack of papers was slammed down onto the desk in front of him. “You must sign these if you wish to be enrolled here Shadowpaw. Jake read over the forms, signing them faster than he ever thought was possible before, then again he didn’t think being a shifter was possible before either so this must be part of being a wolf. He handed the stack back and the headmaster dropped the stack into a file cabinet and tapped a few keys on his computer, which burped out a schedule for him as well as a map of the school and where his dormitory room was. “Seeing as you’re a Shadowpaw, you get you father’s old penthouseesque room. Its at the top of the tallest tower and is only accessible by air so you’ll need a pair of wings to get there.”

The man growled as he pointed a finger at Jake. A moment later he felt his shirt and vest rip as a pair of dragon-like wings spread from his back. “COOL, I CAN FLY!!” he said leaping into the air and doing a barrel roll. “DO THAT AGAIN AND YOU’RE EXPELLED!” the headmaster snarled. “You’re only allowed to use those to get to your dormitory, and if you use them for anything else, I’ll know about it and you’ll be out of here faster than you can say you’re sorry.” Jake apologized, gathered the papers and trudged outside to find his dormitory. He gazed up and saw a solitary glassed-in tower with no door on the ground levels to be seen. He flew up to the top of the tower and saw a stone balcony surrounding the top floor. He landed and opened the door by placing a paw on the door with hummed and slid open at his touch.

Jake gasped and dropped everything as he saw that the room was decorated like that of a king’s. There were several diamond chandeliers hanging from the solid glass ceiling, He wandered around the multi-story room. First he explored the downstairs. There was a large kitchen, a dining room, an extravagant lounge with a piano and various instruments as well. Another room held technology he’d only ever read about in spy novels, stuff like grapping-hook guns and laser-beam pens and even a latex suit that looked perfectly tailored to fit him. “Whoa this can’t be right, my dad was no spy.” He said aloud not realizing the tall cervine butler standing behind him. “Quite the contrary young master, your father was one of the best, that’s how he met your mother after all. My name is Corvin. If you need me just howl.” He said climbing down a ladder onto a landing a meter below. Jake looked down and noticed a small chamber below him there was a bed, a small porcelain toilet, a shower and a miniature kitchen all together in a single room. “You’re welcome to live up here Corvin, I’ve got more space than I know what to do with and I noticed multiple bedrooms.” Corvin snorted with a surprising sense of glee, then calmed back down. “Are you certain sir, I wouldn’t want to intrude.” Jake replied, “Not at all Vin, mi casa es su casa.” He said helping the deer-man climb back up the ladder. He jumped down and began to help Corvin transfer all his clothes and needed items upstairs into one of the less posh, but still quite fancy, bedrooms.

After he’d gotten Corvin settled, Jake continued exploring his expansive rooms and gasped again when he spotted his dream bedroom. Inside was a bed shaped like a giant dragon’s mouth but instead of a tongue there was a mattress and instead of teeth there was a curtain. The coolest thing was it wasn’t against a wall or sitting on the floor. It hung by heavy steel chains from the ceiling and swung freely. “AWESOME!!!” Just then Corvin addressed him. “Sir, you’ll be late for the opening ceremony if you don’t hurry. Your parents have already taken the liberty of having all your clothes sent here from your home.” He said pushing Jake up the stairs and outside again. “GO!” he said giving one last push, sending Jake careening off the edge of the balcony, causing him to fall screaming at least a dozen stories before remembering he could fly.

Jake soared down to the ground level clutching his bag and the papers he’d been given. He ran off to a large brick structure marked Gym where a bunch of students of varying species had already begun to file in. “Excuse me, coming through, pardon, sorry, “ he said shoving his way through the crowd to the front row to get a seat. No sooner had he sat down then his wings folded back up into his back as fur covered the spot they’d grown from. He and the other students clapped when the headmaster climbed onto the stage and grew quiet as he addressed them. “Welcome to another year at St. Frutio’s, This year we have another Shadowpaw among us, young Jacob Shadowpaw, please come forward!” he called out as a spotlight shone on Jake. He blushed, stood up and climbed up onto the stage. “Thank you sir.” Jake said shaking the dragon’s hand. “Young Jacob Shadowpaw here will of course be the starting quarterback on the football team, as well as the pitcher and captain for the baseball team, and the President of the school gov. just like his father before him.” Not wanting to incur the headmaster’s wrath while on stage, Jake decided to wait until after the ceremony to explain that he’d rather wait a few weeks before he got into all of that.

He just smiled and waved as he climbed back down and sat amongst the other students who were already clambering to sit beside him as if he was one of the populars, which he’d never been before. After the ceremony he noticed that it was already much darker outside than it had been before, Apparently the ceremony had lasted longer than he’d thought it would. He flew off to his solitary tower room and crawled into his dragon’s mouth bed and pulled the covers over him as he tugged on a cord, turning out all the lights in his room.

He slept more soundly than he’d ever had before and before long he was dreaming about the most beautiful raven girl he’d ever seen, ignoring that she was, in fact, the only raven-girl he’d ever seen before. “Just as he was about to ask her name, the curtains around his bed were pulled aside and bright sunlight shone on his face, temporarily blinding him. “Aurgh! CORVIN!!!” he snarled loudly falling out of bed onto the cold stone floor. A few feet away Corvin stood holding Jake’s new school uniform, a tight-fitting white polo shirt and crimson vest with the school’s coat of arms emblazoned on the right breast. “Your uniform sir, I do suggest you hurry or else you’ll be late for your first real day of classes.” He said handing the boy his clothes as well as a pile of books and his other papers.
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