The islands newest inhabitant awoke with a grumble and a groan most unladylike, blinking open bleary eyes and moving to push herself off her stomach. Dragons above, shed slept like a brick! She could hardly feel her awkward limbs, and in her sluggish stupor, the princess didn't yet realize anything was amiss. But her movements felt strange. Foreign. There was something purple beneath her, two somethings, and much gold. Had she ended up drunk in the treasury again? She didn't remember partaking last night, but that was the trouble with some spirits, was it not? Meant a good night past!

She moved to lift a hand and rub her face, but found she was not on elbows in a plush mattress. In fact, she was sitting up entirely! Her arm felt odd as she moved it, and she stopped a few inches from her face in confused shock.

It wasn't her calloused hand at all.

It was one of the purple things. It had toes, pointed nails, pads, FUR, looking suspiciously like a…. paw?
A leg.
Vysenya’s gaze tracked it down, down, down ….. then up, up, up back to her own shoulder. Or… what should've been! It wasn't now. Milky skin and silver hair had been covered in cascades of purple fur in a thousand different shades, some nearly black, and a few hints of silver moonlight broke it apart. Her body was not even her own; she'd been in the wilds outside the castle enough times to know the lean musculature of a wolf. Just how drunk was she? Had she woken still inebriated?
Gathering awkward limbs that didn't belong to her, Vys managed to right herself on all four feet like some unsteady foal still wet with birth. Frustration bubbled up as wakefulness slipped further into her grasp and things seemed no clearer. Was this some dream then? Looking around, the pale eyed woman saw only sand. A great beach spread out before her on either side, and further yet, the sea; the salt heavy in the air told her so, and for a moment she just watched as a wave curled into itself before rolling in upon the golden land. It was dark, but the moon was so bright hanging in the sky, she barely noticed. Something shined in the water, a phenomenon known to her that almost felt comforting in a moment where little else was familiar.

The weight of her tiara atop her strange head felt like a reason to pause. Had she worn it to bed? What was happening?! The question rattled in her mind, and she sucked in a deep breath. At least it, too, was familiar.

Figuring out where she was felt too big, at that moment. Vysenya went back to staring at herself, neck twisted at odd angles as she inspected every freckle and strand of fur, admiring muscles rippling along a lean frame. She was quite pretty, she thought. She'd always liked to dress herself in dark colors anyway; brought out her eyes, her tiara, and the sparkling scales of her companion.
Vaedia!
Concern rattled about her brain like a hive of bees clouding her thoughts, and she moved her gaze about again as her attention flickered; the Jewel-Claw was too big and too glorious to hide these days, truly. But the companion of her heart and soul was nowhere to be seen, and Vys cast her voice over the open sands: Vaedia? The single word seemed to hang in the darkness, heavy and unanswered. She would have to be okay, for the time being.
Breaths growing heavy, Vys went back to looking at herself, feeling about herself with a paw. She still seemed to have her scars, though there weren't any that were so visible they parted her newfound pelt; the score along her right thumb that she'd earned in sparring, the split on the bottom of her chin where she'd once slipped and fell too close to a table, the thin, shallow scrape along her ribs from a near-disasterous swing of an enemy sword. It wasn't until that moment, craning her neck down to peer for the scar at her ribcage, that she noticed her appearance wasn't all that changed.
A particular set of equipment she most certainly had never had before dangled there, obscene in her nudeness. Vys felt her ears grow hot when it first finally occurred to her that she was NAKED, and her previously limp tail finally found use in wrapping up to her belly and covering it.
WHAT WAS HAPPENING?
All her life, she had resented being treated differently; had been roughhousing with the boys even when it was frowned upon, sneaking from her own lessons with fables of needing the bathroom to go spy on -or join- her what her brother was doing. She had never wanted the crown itself, but she craved recognition from her own family more than anything. Yet every decision she had ever been made had been with that of the mind of a man, people said; a princess bordering on feral as she desperately sought the attention and approval of her kin, harsh in her protection of them and fierce in battles she was rarely invited to.
But she'd never really wanted to BE a man. Or, perhaps, had never considered the impossibility and set her sights on the slim chances she had otherwise to impress Valarr and the rest in her own way. She wasn't sure. All she knew was that she was uncomfortable now, feeling strange in this wholly foreign body and wishing very much to wake or sober up or… whatever this hell was.

Vys took one shaky step, then another, finding her balance in the whirl of questions flooding her mind. Nervousness prickled at her senses. She was weaponless with, frankly, no way to wield one and no dragon by her side. She was uneasy in a body not her own, a naked dog sitting on a beach she'd never seen before watching glowing water pulse against the shore.

Her steps grew quicker with confidence, but her heart had begun to hammer in her throat.

Eventually, she was running, another, louder peal of VAEDIA snapping from her throat. She had to be near! Vysenya plunged into the nearby woods, assaulted with smells she couldn't understand and a bewilderment she couldn't dispel. The Solarys Princess had not ever in her life been truly afraid, not flying above the clouds on dragonback or charging into battle on her own two feet, but in that very moment, she thought that must've been the only thing she was feeling. Had she ever been…. Alone? Completely, totally alone, not to mention without any way to take care of herself? What… was she supposed to do with the overbearing silence? No guard to annoy her with his presence, no brothers to annoy, no sisters to lounge with, no beat of mighty wings against the sky? No Mother, even, to harass her about responsibilities of marriage or some such fiddle faddle and rot.
Vysenya would not have to find out today.
She didn't get far into the trees. She saw a tiny -tiny!- figure swoop down from the canopy at an impossible speed and threw on the brakes with a sharp, albeit short shriek as collision became apparent. It didn't hurt, at least, but Vys fell back onto her ass with a grunt as she stopped too hard, and the little rainbow Thing crashed into her chest so hard it didn't move for several seconds.

Vys stared down at the bright plumage of a hummingbird, its chest heaving as hard as hers. It stared back up, its beady little silver eyes stark and all-seeing. There was anger there, and relief, and for a moment incredulity froze them both. Then: Vaedia? The bird trilled up at her with a soft, lost sound, and Vys just lifted a paw to hug her companion closer. Sweetest song my of my heart and soul, is that really you? Long since past were the days when she could wrap arms around her dragon; the little beast had hatched for her as a young babe, and they had grown together from small to formidable.
How odd it was now, to feel so helpless.

But the fear, it faded.

Vysenya bared her new teeth in a snarl as she looked around again, heaving for breaths and helping the hummingbird crawl up to a better spot upon her shoulder where she could snuggle against her neck and together they could feel the other's heartbeat. She could still see the place in which she had woken, but frantic breaths still shook her as she tried to make sense of anything happening. A hummingbird was hardly any sort of protection she had hoped to have in finding the song of her soul, but it was comfort nonetheless. Stability when everything else seemed to be twirling around her. Vaedia chirped again as if agreeing with the unspoken sentiment, shuffling her wings so quickly Vys could feel the vibration against her. Perhaps the days of pretending she was a firebreathing dragon with snapping jaws and swinging claws would come in better use now, she thought dryly.

What the fuck.