Had it not been for a chance encounter in the January Sales he’d have been none the wiser. That chance encounter changed a lot of perspectives. The person involved, and old school friend of his father’s and his wife.. the one who died in a car crash 2 years before he was born.
So not his mother then despite his older brothers, aunts, uncles, neighbours, and close friends of his father’s reference to his mother having died in a car crash or rather the mother of his brothers..

Having then turned 18 he could have requested a copy of his birth certificate but his father had relented and given it to him, so at least he had a name for her. What had happened to her he didn’t know, an apparently neither did his father; she’d simply left one day about 6 months after he was born after 3 rather unsavoury individuals had come to the house looking for her and her son. He’d not been there at that time being out with his father’s sister where he apparently stayed for a few months until his father was sure that they had gone.

Of course this discovery did potentially go a long way to explaining where his abilities came from. After that January day in 2004 things have never quite been the same. It had been difficult at first, his brothers horrified at what he became that day, and his father distant. In the time since his brothers had accepted that it was just a strange affect of what had happened that day but both he and his father knew different, and in time his father had returned to treating him no differently than before.

The repercussions on another level had been more severe. His father had had a visitor, a man by the name of Cellius Grimthwaite, although everybody called him “Chuck”, head of the local branch of the Pryden Cadets, in which he’d been enrolled. This meant that twice a week, on a Wednesday night and a Saturday they made the trek to Merthyr. And once a month he had a weekend away “training” at an outward bound centre in the Brecons. Whilst all the other cadets bunked in dormitories, he and Clarrisa, and later, William, had a special room adjacent to Chuck’s Office. The reason, all of them, “Chuck” included could “shapeshift”.

It was through Chuck’s guidance that he learnt that their normal form was not “human” but what the vast human population would describe as “Demonic”, a bipedal reptilian form that was better armoured and could deal considerably more damage. It was not the form he’d reverted to on that January morning; that was what Chuck called his primal form, and his was a heavily armoured damage slugging tank. The problem was that he had no conscious memory of anything that happened if he was forced into this form.. Other than that January morning he’d only, at least to his conscious memory entered that form on one other occasion, and that had been deliberately induced by Chuck.

In other respects the Pryden Cadets appeared to resemble most other quasi military cadet unit. They marshalled fetes and carnivals, attended Remembrance festivals, and held “Community Help Weeks”. They did have one difference they had their own Rifle range. Under 16’s were generally restricted to Air rifles, but over 16’s who showed aptitude could progress to Glock 17’s, H&K 417, H&K MP5SFA2, or Tikka .308 Lite T3.

Rodri proved to have a natural talent acquiring first his Marksmanship with Air Rifle and Pistol, then with the Glock, and finally with the Tikka .308 Lite T3.

It wasn’t until he turned 17 that the true nature of the Pryden Cadets became apparent.. it was a cover recruiting organisation for a special unit within the Welsh Constabulary.

Rodri was then forced to make a decision.. join the unit and forsake his burgeoning Tennis Career or walk away and potentially turn professional in a couple of years. He chose to join the unit.