This is the start of a story I've been working on. Just wanted to post the beginning here to see what anyone thought of it. Hope everyone enjoys reading it half as much as I enjoyed writing it. If not, oh well. More enjoyment for me.

The girls sat companionably watching the rain beat the fragile earth. Lightning flashed across the dark sky as thunder roared throughout the valley. It was one of those rainstorms that if you even thought about walking outside, you were drenched before you had even moved.
Aries sat with her long legs stretched out in front of her. Her lean torso comfortably positioned. Long thick brown hair ran the length of her spinal column. With every glimmer of lightning her green eyes lit up brightly. She wore long navy blue jeans and a black army style tank top and a casual pair of flip-flops. The only makeup she wore was a thin line of black eyeliner, but she wore two dragon necklaces and one silver ring, that she never took off. She looked a little older than her seventeen years.
Lilith sat across from her, her short black hair up in wicked pigtails. She was short and a tad overweight. Her chocolate brown eyes were deep and thick with thought. She was dressed in a red Dark Wonderland T-shirt and baggy black Hot Topic jeans. Her makeup was dark eye shadow, thick black liner, and mascara. She wore a variety of spikes around her wrists and neck. She looked younger than her nineteen years.
They were lounging in stiff backed chairs in a dimly lit delicatessan. Waiting for their third party. Sphinx was eighteen, had long, straigh,t sunlit blonde hair and hazy grey blue eyes. She like Lilith was short and tadly overweight. But it didn't make her look unhealthy just muscular. And she was as was her custom, fairly late for their little meeting.
They were meeting as a group to discuss the coming evening’s events. Preparing for the initiation ceremony. They were shifters. True shape altering creatures. And tonight was their night of passage. Every shape shifter would be judged by their common creature form and would join the ranks of the clans as was deemed fit. That would normally mean separation and punishment for sharing secrets with outer species members. As soon as a shifter child reached teenage years, all clans met as one tense council. If you weren't chosen for a group you were destroyed.
This harldy seemed fair. None of the girls were the same brand of shifter but they’d grown up together and learned what they were together. They were inseparable, regardless of their forms. And now when not only were they expected to separate but they were each in a very dangerous situation.
Most shifters were natural animals. Tigers, snakes, dogs, etc.… And they all only had two forms. Human to animal, with no in between. In the three of their cases, the ceremony might not be as simple. For they were unnatural creatures, straight from myths, breathing legends, with three forms.

In her first shifting form, Sphinx’s hair transformed to a glistening blue that always seemed to be icy wet. Her body type changed to a more prime figure, skin took on an opalescent sheen, like a white pearl. Her eyes became liquid gold, burning fiercely. She was magnificent to behold. Her intelligence was amazing. And her riddles were devious. When she changed, a silver trident found it’s place in her right hand.
When Sphinx shifted to her final, animal form she became a griffin with wings and pelt the color of pure fallen snow. Her eyes became a brilliant winter blue. Both cat and bird. Both predetor and defensive by nature.

Aries first shifting form took on more pointy ears. Her hair color became metallic silver streaked midnight blue. Her form was more graceful, more lithe, though her skin tone did not change. Her eyes were silver, but her pupils were the palest lagoon blue with a midnight color bursting forth. She was obviously elven. Her speed was impressive. A thin blade inlaid with elven runes was hooked to her left side.
Her animal form was a minuture dragon, no natural entity. She was dusky blue with stripes of dull silver. Though smaller than usual dragon's size, it made her no weaker and easier to hide.. In this form her eye color was dark emerald green. Her claws were ivory and razor sharp. They were her most enjoyable weapon.

Lilith’s first form had hair the color of just spilled blood, like a good ruby flowing past her shoulders in wavy lines. Her body toned into more tight muscle with an inch or so of height and her skin was luminous, bleached of all color. Her eyes were fuchsia with a dark red pupil. She was dangerous. Her illusions were flawless. After the silver bladed syes, she carried a silver crossbow with her always.
The animal form she carried was that of a black winged pegasus. Her body was like liguid darkness. Her eyes glimmerd full of color yet always dark. Her hooves, hard and wicked sharp were metallic and red as blood.

All through the years they'd kept their shifts secrets between them. They'd been caught my Aries's brother when they were in middle school. One little mistake and bam, lockdown. No school, nothing but training and shifting lessons until they'd turned 15. Their parents had only wanted normal lives for them. But it wasn't to be. Now here they sat. Preparing to face either imprisonment alone. Or death. They all knew that to come clean at initiation may not go at all well, but it was a risk all shifters took eventually. Better sooner than later. {Scoff scoff, right… Like all little children have to attend 13 years at a school to have their souls crushed out of them because it’s all for the best.}
They would face this test together. This meeting could very well be the last time they stood together. Aries was planning on bartering her help to any shifter group that would take her. She'd always been one of the people who needed acceptence. Needed people to want her. Her companions were not the same. Lilith and Sphinx had an agenda all their own. Tonight, it was either flee together or die together. Sister's to the very end.