Leo and Rex returned to Leo's room to converse about Leo's new power. "A shifter? Is that what you called me?" Leo asked taking a seat on his bed. "Yeah. Short for shape shifter. You know what those are right?" Rex said jumping up to Leo bed. "Well, you said I can turn into any animal. Is that not it?" Leo question Rex. "It is. But you left one detail out. You not only can change yourself, but others as well." Leo raised an eyebrow. This was starting to get interesting. "But that's for another time. You just received your power today, and I need to teach you the basics." Rex explained.
Leo was ready to listen to everything Rex had to say. "So what's first than? Do I turn full lion, or back human?" Leo was anxious to know how his power worked. "Easy mate. This stuff takes time. For now will focus on a full shift. I'm actually impressed your first was a partial shift. Nobody gets that early without practice." Rex praised Leo. Leo felt proud of himself even though he didn't know how he would do that.
"You were staring at your Lion poster, right?" Leo noded. "And you thought about what it was like to be one?" Leo started to scratch his head again. "Not really... I just looked at it and thought 'what if I was like you'. Like metaphorically. Not actually being the animal." Leo explained. "Works the same way. You just compared yourself to a lion and you shifted partially. Now try thinking of yourself like a lion." Leo was thinking of how ridiculous that was. "You mean I just have to think as a lion?" Leo asked slightly irritated. "No, I mean jump through hoops of fire..." Rex said sarcastically. "You know not every process has to be complicated. Just try it."
Leo shrugged, but was now deep in his thought. He thought of himself as a lion sprinting through the wild lands. Feeling the wind in his mane all the way to the tail and his paws sprinting across the grass. "I... I feel something." Leo said coming back from his thoughts. His slightly feline nose was pushing out with his mouth, growing golden brown fur all over his face. His eyes closed quickly and opened now gold with slit pupils. The fur spread down Leo's chest, as Leo's muscles started to swell and shift. He felt his shirt getting tighter as fur spread to his arms. His fingers started merging into paws as claws erupted from the tips of his four fingers.
Leo felt fur crawl down to his waist ad his bones and muscles in his legs reshaped. A tug of pressure began to grow from his spine as a long tail came lashing out with a tassel of gold fur to tip. Leo got down on all fours and his toes started to merge into hind paws, shredding his socks. Leo felt an urge. A predatory instinct was begging him to come out. Leo smiled through his new feline muzzle. "*ROAR*" He tugged his head back and a loud roar released from his new powerful lungs. Rex covered his ears surprised by the volume. But nonetheless, he was proud Leo was getting his new abilities down. "Beautiful." He whispered to himself.
Leo had put all of his energy into that roar as he almost collapse to the ground. But he managed to hold himself up. Rex got off the bed to face Leo in his new body. "How ya feeling, mate?" Rex asked smiling. Leo looked into Rex's face letting a smile of his own show. "You look funny when you do that..." Leo said weakly swaying his tail. Rex could only scoff. That's all he was thinking about right now? Although he admitted, it was funny to see Leo pulling off the same expression in his lion look. "Right back at ya." Rex said smuggly.
"You know, you being a shifter, you don't always have to follow natural form." Rex said. Leo was confused about what he was on about. "Try standing on two feet." Rex suggested. "What? Like this?" Leo said looking at his front paws. "Yeah. Try it." Leo was a bit hesitant, but made an effort to jump to his hind feet. All the sudden, Leo's legs shifted again to support his transitioning posture. Leo was now a hind paw standing lion. "Woah..." Leo said looking at his body. His hand paws still mostly functioned like human fingers. With that, he decided to feel his tail. What a strange yet pleasant feeling as he brought it to his front side to examine. Rex wagged his own tail happy Leo was enjoying himself. Leo had removed his socks, which unfortunately we're shredded during his transformation, but at least the rest of his clothing survived.
"Rex... I don't... This is amazing!" Leo bent down to pet Rex's head. "Well normally I can't teach you advance techniques like that, but you seem to be a quick learner." Rex licked Leo's face. Leo smiled, but than thought why Rex would keep this from him all this time. Not only how he talked, but why he kept this from Leo for so long. Rex looked back at Leo to see sadness from his expression. "Hey pal, what's wrong? I'm still your dog. You can still treat me like one." Rex tried comforting Leo climbing up his chest. That wasn't what Leo was thinking about.
"Well... It just..."