"Of course you are. If you weren't, I wouldn't call you a family friend."
When Lynn turned towards him with a frown, Henghai wondered if he said the wrong thing. Usually, being called a family friend was a thing to take pride in. It meant you were trusted to make an entire family happy with your presence. That you could come over to their house uninvited and hang around like family.
Then Lynn asked about shifting. Henghai paused for a moment before falling into a fit of laughter.
"For a moment there, I thought you were unhappy about being a family friend."
No, no. Lynn looked serious about this. Henghai swallowed his laughter before responding in kind.
"Hmmm... It feels like... Have you ever had an out-of-body experience before? It feels sort of like that for me. Where my body is scattering, then coming back together in a new way. I've heard people say its relaxing because it's like you're floating in a void and coming back to the real world refreshed. Personally, I've always found it discomforting." Shifting made him vulnerable. He couldn't understand how others could just shift out in public, where anything could interrupt and permanently disfigure them.
"That's how my people work, however. We're made of magic, so it's much easier for us to rearrange ourselves. I've heard shifting can be very painful for some species. I think it's about how in tune you are with the magic shifting you and how different the change is. Like I've seen some werewolves having painful shiftings because their bones are rearranging themselves without any kind of pain nullifying."
