Well, it’s been a busy week in the life of Cowwithbark to say the least!
After I had worked for the people of Bloodhoof Village for a while, I got word from my Druid trainer up in Thunder Bluff that he wanted to have a word. I was quite nervous not knowing what he wanted, but it turned out that he had been following my progress and was content. It was time for the next part of my training. So he taught me the incantation needed to teleport oneself to Moonglade and sent me off to Nighthaven to meet with Dendrite Starblaze, another druid who has devoted himself to teaching new recruits.
So off to Moonglade I went to meet up with this Dendrite fellow, who turned out to be a Night Elf! Bah! I flinched when I first saw him, but I had to take a deep breath and restreigh myself. You are not a Blood Elf, you are a tauren druid and this is a fellow druid regardless of his shape and form. Now smile and get on with it! So I did my best to keep my disdain for the Night Elf out of my facial expression and went on with the charade.
Either I did well at hiding my true feelings or he was simply to busy or mistook my behaviour for nervousness. Either way he simply welcomed me and instructed me to seek out the Great Bear Spirit that dwells in the Moonglade and ask it to teach me about the nature of the Bear.
At first the spirit was reluctant to let me near, but after a while he too seemed to accept the strange look in my eyes and so I sat down to be taught about the ways of the Bear. After having learned about the Bear, I was sent on to prove that I had the strength required to proceed to mastering its form.
I have to tell you, either I have forgotten how tedious it is to be a new recruit, or these druids like to put their recruits through some extra hardships just for the fun of it…
So in order to prove my strenght i got sent to the boarder of the Barrens and Mulgore, where I summoned Lunaclaw and proceeded to royally smacking his behind. Seriously all these prove-yourself tasks were starting to get on my nerves!
But once I returned to my Druid trainer in Thunder Bluff with the message from Lunaclaws spirit that I had passed the final test, he took me aside and whispered into my ear the sacred incantation that would transform me into a bear. The thrill of expectation sent shivers down my spine. Not only did I know how to travel from one body to another, I now also possessed the power of transforming the body I currently control. I was ecstatic.
Little did I know at the time what hardships would await me! You’d think that after having reached the highest rank within the mage society, a little incantation of transformation would not present any trouble, to a seasoned sorceress as myself. Wrong.
The first time I tired it out, all I managed to transform were my hands (or front paws if you will). It turns out that you need to concentrate to cast the spell, but you’re not allowed to concentrate on any particular part of your body, or that will be the only part that transforms! It took me a lot of tries to finally master the spell somewhat correctly, but I can already tell that it gets easier and easier for every time I do it.
In short: I’ve spent the entire week learning and practising how to shift shape into a bear. After a lot of practice (alone, in a dark corner of the Barrens of course, no way I’d let people see me like this!) I finally managed to turn myself into a whole bear… at least up to the horns. It’s really frustrating, but no matter what I do, I just can’t seem to make those horns go away, I just can’t! Arch Druid Hamuul said it’s all right, that most new druids have problems with this and that it is very possible it will take me years before I master hiding them.
Oh joy.
Voodoo Ventures 