The surface broke, and the king of the river rose with a mighty splash to greet the humanoid figure that was approaching the river.'Welcome, boy,' Ach...elous said, and as he laughed the stream joined in with him. 'Another one of love's fools. Come to reclaim your sweetheart.'The river king was a sight to behold. Ten times larger than any man, he had four long scaly arms, each with an enormous, jagged claw. His head resembled that of a crocodile, except his teeth were long and sharp as knives, and. " Sheryye said thoughtfully, "she's a shifter, too?" Shifter?" Tanya asked, then gently prodded Sheryye's mind for an explanation. "Oh, you mean, 'shape shifter'? No. Neither Beth nor Béla were shape shifters. They simply picked out a new body when they died. Everyone does it; most of us just don't remember. Dying is usually pretty traumatic, you know; too much pain and trauma to allow yourself to recall, plus, being in a different environment, your memories fade quickly if there are too many. It's been an emotional couple of hours for you."I nodded and stood up. He tried to look busy, but I could see he was just shuffling papers around. I walked to the door and glanced back. He'd turned to the side and had his finger tips resting on his lips, which were turned up in a sad smile.Maybe this jump wouldn't be quite so difficult as it seemed at first glance.Back in my room, I saw that Shannon lived very spartanly. I'm not sure if all the nuns were expected to have so few personal touches. The act of sex changes people, turns them from lambs of God, to monsters of Satan, my mother preached purity and chastity, then in the heat of desire, begged for the unspeakable, her white flesh marked by the leather tawse, the pain drawing pleasure, the tawse marking and drawing blood, while she begged for more.She wore high necked clothes and mid length frocks, hiding her unadulterated marking, people thought her a bible thumping convert, in truth she hid her sexual excesses, her markings and.